InnovateNB Names Top Innovators

Last night, the third InnovateNB celebration honoured innovators from New Brunswick’s economy and heard a keynote address by new premier Susan Holt.

The awards ceremoney in Moncton was preceded by an afternoon of wide-ranging discussions with an emphasis on AI. 

"This year, we are especially proud to highlight our trailblazers in AI, whose achievements exemplify resilience, creativity, and the economic power of cutting-edge technology,” said Cathy Simpson, CEO of TechImpact, a founding organization.

“Through their stories and accomplishments, we are reminded of our collective potential and leave inspired to contribute to New Brunswick’s growth as a hub for innovation."

Holt, who became New Brunswick's first female premier earlier this month, was a familar face to the innovation community as she previously held several positions in the public and private sectors supporting the province's startups. "This really feels like a bit of a homecoming for me," she said, adding that one of her first jobs was with Chalk Media, a startup that exited in 2009. 

Holt noted the need to channel more investment into startups and said she wanted to improve the province's Small Business Investor Tax Credit. She would also like to see the federal government modernize its Scientific Research and Experimental Development, or SR&ED, tax credit, which was introduced decades ago. 

At the ceremony, InnovateNB also announced three new members of its Hall of Fame: Sandy Bird, Chris Newton, and Brian Flood (who passed away earlier this year), three co-founders of Q1 Labs. Their pioneering cybersecurity company was launched during the dotcom boom of the 1990s and later sold out to IBM, reportedly for more than $600 million. 

The InnovateNB winners were:

Emerging Innovator 

Farough Motasemi – Anessa Biogas Software

Most Innovative Product or Service 

Anessa Biogas Software

Productivity Improvement by Adopting Technology 

Crosby Foods Limited

Public Sector Award for Innovation 

eVisitNB

Economic Impact Through Innovation 

The SmartEnergy Company

Most Innovative Startup  

TrojAI

Diversity and Inclusion Champion 

Collège Communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick

Innovation in Academia and Research 

Dr. Shelley Doucet, Centre for Research in Integrated Care, University of New Brunswick

Innovation Champion 

Dr.Jalila Jbilou

Innovators to Watch 

Pascale Michaud, AgroGene Solutions
Tricia Hayes, Loch Lomond Villa Foundation
Dr. Trevor Robin Hanson, University of New Brunswick
Cyndhi Nai-Omi Carrasco Delgado, Wow Creators
Rebecca McSheffery, Pond-Deshpande Centre
Dizolve Group Corporation
Houlie Duque, HomeschoolToGo By GHP Scholastic Inc
Dr. Dodick Gasser, Innov - CCNB
Kara LeBlanc, MedReddie

The InnovateNB Celebration and Awards was founded by a group of organizations. As well as TechImpact, these include the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation (NBIF), the McKenna Institute at the University of New Brunswick,  Propel, as well as local economic development partners in Saint John, Moncton and Fredericton. This year’s partner is the Southeast Regional Service Commission.

$50 million BioAccelerator Coming to PEI

Work has begun on a new BioAccelerator in Charlottetown. Financed by the federal and provincial governments, the facility is designed to support Canada's expanding bioscience industry.

Spearheaded by the PEI BioAlliance, a private sector-led non-profit, the location will offer 60,000 square feet of biomanufacturing space for researchers, entrepreneurs, and bioscience-based companies, the group said in a press release.

The $50 million BioAccelerator is said to be the largest single investment in economic development infrastructure in PEI history. Tenants will include early-stage and small and medium-sized enterprises from Atlantic Canada and international locations.

As well as supporting the growth of the PEI bioscience cluster, it’s intended the facility will boost Canada's pandemic preparedness and advance Atlantic Canada’s position as a national centre of expertise in bio-based product development and biomanufacturing.

“Prince Edward Island companies and research organizations have put our province on the map for our expertise in bio-manufacturing, from mRNA vaccines, to natural health products, to fish health and nutrition,” said Charmaine Noonan, Board Chair of the PEI BioAlliance. “The BioAccelerator will be an incredible addition to that capability.”

PEI’s bioscience sector currently includes 60 bioscience companies bringing in over $600 million annually in sales, making bioscience the second-largest industry on Prince Edward Island. The PEI Bioscience Cluster has surpassed 2025 growth targets and is on track to become a billion-dollar industry by 2030.

Located in the BioCommons Research Park in Charlottetown, the BioAccelerator will add to recent public and private sector investments such as BIOVECTRA’s first-in-Canada mRNA vaccine manufacturing facility, the Canadian Alliance for Skills and Training in Life Sciences (CASTL), and the Bioscience Manufacturing Incubator, the press release said.

The BioAccelerator will host the facilities and expertise of the National Research Council of Canada’s atypical fermentation labs, CASTL’s national headquarters, and an expanded lead training facility.

The new building will be operated by the PEI BioAlliance. Construction is expected to be completed in the fall of 2026.

Tech Forward Award Winners Named

Digital Nova Scotia last week honoured members of the province’s tech community with its Tech Forward Awards, recognizing diverse contributors and contributions to the province's ecosystem.

The winners are:

Diversity and Inclusion Award: MOC BioTechnologies

“MOC BioTechnologies has made significant strides in fostering diversity and inclusion in Nova Scotia’s tech sector. Their inclusive hiring practices and workplace initiatives have created a welcoming environment where all employees can thrive.”

Talent Champion Award: Immediac

“Immediac stands out for its commitment to developing and retaining tech talent in Nova Scotia. The company’s forward-thinking hiring strategies, combined with a focus on positive workplace culture, have positioned them as leaders in fostering local talent and showcasing Nova Scotia as a top destination for career growth in tech.”

Tech For Good Award: GEO Nova Scotia

“GEO Nova Scotia is using technology to create lasting, positive impacts by addressing critical social and environmental challenges. Their commitment to sustainability and community well-being is helping to build a brighter future for Nova Scotia, one tech solution at a time.”

Thinking Forward Award: Dr. Srini Sampalli

“As a professor at Dalhousie University, Dr. Sampalli’s MYTech Research Lab has mentored students across all academic levels...His Wall of Champions whiteboard proudly displays the names of students he’s guided since 1993, including Erik Demaine, now a renowned professor at MIT. Dr. Sampalli’s commitment extends beyond his lab; he was awarded an NSERC CREATE grant to train 200 students in emerging cybersecurity technologies, creating direct pathways into the workforce through internships.”

Provincial Spotlight Award: IGNITE Atlantic

“IGNITE Atlantic is making waves beyond HRM, helping to grow Nova Scotia’s tech sector through export, recruitment, and community engagement. Their efforts have put a spotlight on the dynamic tech innovation happening across the province, proving that tech talent is thriving in all corners of Nova Scotia.”

Best of Tech Award: HealthEMe

“HealthEMe has had an outstanding year, marked by impressive growth and innovation in the health tech space. Their groundbreaking products and successful partnerships are helping to improve health outcomes across Nova Scotia and beyond, earning them this year’s coveted Best of Tech Award.”

One to Watch Award: Seif Elbayomi

“Seif Elbayomi’s journey from Egypt to Canada, where he pursued a degree in computer science, has been marked by resilience and determination. As one of the organizers behind DevOpsDays Halifax 2024, Seif played a key role in bringing this major tech event to the region. His passion for fostering community is evident in his volunteer work with Canada Learning Code, where he helps make tech accessible to all. Through these initiatives and his involvement as a Student Ambassador at Dalhousie University, Seif continues to connect, mentor, and inspire others in the tech industry."

Role Model Award: Isaac Cook

“Isaac Cook’s dedication to Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (EDIA) is at the core of everything they do. As a trans, disabled, and queer individual, Isaac has made it a personal mission to create space and opportunities for underrepresented communities. As Dal Innovates’ Project Manager of Inclusive Innovation, Isaac has led initiatives like bringing QueerTech to Atlantic Canada, showcasing the need for more inclusive spaces in tech. Their work extends beyond this role, from developing accessible websites for small businesses to leading discussions with the Diversity Institute to improve mentorship for equity-deserving founders.”

InnovateNB Award Finalists Unveiled

Finalists have been announced for the third annual InnovateNB Awards, which recognizes innovators from all sectors of the province’s economy.

Winners will be revealed at the awards event to be held November 13 at the Delta Beausejour in Moncton. InnovateNB is organized by TechImpact, the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, the McKenna Institute at the University of New Brunswick, Propel and local economic development partners in Saint John, Moncton and Fredericton. This year’s partner from the Southeast Region is the Southeast Regional Service Commission.

“We are elated to be hosting hundreds of people in the innovation ecosystem at the third annual InnovateNB Celebration on November 13th,” organizers said in a press release.

The finalists are:  

Emerging Innovator 

Farough Motasemi – Anessa Biogas Software 

Damilare Odumosu - CropMind

Dr. Sarah Pakzad - Atlantic Memory Clinic

Most Innovative Product or Service 

Anessa Biogas Software

C-Therm Technologies

Dizolve

Productivity Improvement by Adopting Technology 

To be announced at the InnovateNB Awards

Public Sector Award for Innovation 

Centre of Excellence for Digital Innovation

EVisitNB

New Brunswick Department of Health

Economic Impact Through Innovation 

The SmartEnergy Company

VidCruiter

Construction Association of NB

Most Innovative Startup  

TrojAI

MedReddie

Profitual

Diversity and Inclusion Champion 

TRICOAST Education

Collège Communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick

RealWorld ABA

Innovation in Academia and Research 

Moulay Akhloufi, Perception, Robotics, and Intelligent Machines Laboratory, Université de 

Moncton

Ian Church, Ocean Mapping Group in the Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering,

University of New Brunswick  

Dr. Shelley Doucet, Centre for Research in Integrated Care, University of New Brunswick

Innovation Champion 

The Gaia Project

Dr.Jalila Jbilou

Innov, Collège Communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick

Innovators to Watch

• Pascale Michaud, AgroGene Solutions

• Tricia Hayes, Loch Lomond Villa Foundation

• Trevor Hanson, University of New Brunswick

• Cyndhi Nai-Omi Carrasco Delgado, Wow Creators

• Rebecca McSheffery, Pond-Deshpande Centre

• Cameron Alward, Dizolve Group Corporation

• Houlie Duque, HomeschoolToGo By GHP Scholastic Inc

• Dodick Gasser, Innov - CCNB

• Kara LeBlanc, MedReddie

The InnovateNB Hall of Fame Induction and Productivity Improvement by Adopting Technology Award will be announced live at the event.

Tickets here.

Heart App Wins Health Canada Approval

Sparrow BioAcoustics CEO Mark Opauszky

Sparrow BioAcoustics CEO Mark Opauszky

St. John’s-based Sparrow BioAcoustics is celebrating Health Canada’s approval of Stethophone, an AI-powered app that allows users to capture and analyze heart sounds using a smartphone.

Designed for both healthcare professionals and personal use, Stethophone helps detect structural and rhythmic heart anomalies. The company is aiming to build the world’s biggest databank of cardiological recordings.

"This authorization from Health Canada allows us to offer Stethophone to every Canadian with a heart concern, whether for themselves or someone in their care," said Mark Opauszky, CEO of Sparrow BioAcoustics in a press release.

Testing and validation of the device involved thousands of patients, supported by doctors from Canada and the international cardiology community.

Just last month, Sparrow closed a $10M funding round. Stethophone won Food and Drug Administration approval in the U.S. in 2023 allowing it to be used by medical professionals in the United States. At the time, the company said it was the first-ever FDA-cleared smartphone stethoscope Software-as-a-Medical-Device.

Stethophone is expected to launch within days.

Bell’s Entrepreneurial Struggles Inform New Role

With her own business on ice after seven years of operations, entrepreneur Tracy Bell is able to bring a lot of empathy to her new role as executive director of the Wallace McCain Institute, which aims to help business owners and entrepreneurial leaders throughout Atlantic Canada grow bigger, faster. 

Bell, a co-founder of Saint John-based Millennia TEA, a startup that imported frozen tea from Sri Lanka, Colombia and Kenya then sold it in nutrient-dense form to big retailers such as Sobeys and Whole Foods,  suspended its operations at the start of this year.

She cites the difficult economic climate, escalating supply chain costs, and the challenge of getting consumers to rethink their ideas around the world’s most popular beverage.

“With Millennia TEA we had a big vision, a product that delivered, and all kinds of external validation in the form of patents, awards etc. But I have lived some of the hardest things business owners face,” Bell told Entrevestor.

“We established an international supply chain with Fairtrade organic farmers. We created our own import category because the trade framework did not exist for frozen tea. We raised capital. We secured national distribution. And then we closed operations. These are hard things. And I think they serve me in my work with founders, and by extension, the Wallace McCain Institute.”

Bell said raising investment in Canada, and Atlantic Canada in particular, is increasingly tough. And costs are high: “With Millennia TEA, our supply chain costs went up 300 percent during Covid.”

Getting traction for an innovative product also proved hard in the mass grocery business, she said, especially when many consumers struggle to afford the basics.   

She said tea is the most consumed beverage in the world, after water, and that Millennia TEA asked consumers to re-think the familiar drink.

“We asked the consumer to treat tea as a plant, not as dried fragments. Tea is one of the most powerful medicinal plants. Heat, light and air degrade the health benefits. We reduced or eliminated exposure to those, washed the leaves in a patented process that helped the antioxidants better absorb in the gut. And we asked consumers to consume the plant in full.

“Our tea was stored in the freezer, alongside the frozen fruits and berries. We asked people to throw our tea in smoothies, as well as drink it in the conventional way.

“It was my first business. We didn’t anticipate fully what a challenge it would be to change consumer behaviour and get them to use raw, frozen tea cubes. There was no reference point although when people did actually try it, the re-purchase rate was very high.”

For now, the company is continuing to file corporate taxes, but they have ceased operations and have laid off the team.

“Our investors would have kept us afloat, but it didn’t make sense,” Bell said. “There may be a time down the road when it would make good sense to spin it back up…We may find a buyer, someone who can educate the marketplace in a way we couldn’t as a startup with a limited budget, but right now the company is in the freezer.”

Her new role at the Wallace McCain Institute is a homecoming of sorts for Bell who first joined the institute in 2019 as a member of its Entrepreneurial Leaders Program. For the past seven months she has served as CEO of the Saint John Region Chamber of Commerce. 

“When I was running Millennia TEA, I was very focused on our business objectives. Now, I’ve got this wider lens on the economy, thanks to my experience leading the chamber for the last seven months,” she said.

“I better understand the importance of trade. It’s the work of helping to grow businesses that have the potential to strengthen the economy, that’s what lights me up.

“When Wallace McCain himself created the institute, he saw our collective strength as central to the region’s future prosperity. I can’t wait to continue the good work done over the past 15 years, and to grow the impact exponentially over the next 15.” 

Volta and CDL Offer Fall Investment Day

Creative Destruction Lab (CDL-Atlantic) and Volta are holding an investment day that will showcase high-potential, early-stage startups building innovative solutions in the region.

Founders will pitch their companies to a curated audience of active investors, ecosystem leaders and the tech community, organizers said in a press release.

There will be no prizes or judging, just straight pitches from the startups that highlight their investment readiness, followed by one-on-one meetings with selected investors in breakout rooms.

The event will be held at Volta’s Argyle Street location in Halifax on Tuesday, November 12 from noon to 4pm, starting with a networking lunch and concluding with more networking and investor-founder meetings.

Pitching Companies:

Atlantiq AI

Atlantiq AI is developing an enterprise-wide, AI-powered solution that integrates and streamlines business tools for enhanced productivity and decision-making​.

Baskl

Baskl integrates AI into popular VFX software, enabling artists to leverage cutting-edge tools effortlessly, with over 2,000 paying users and a scalable framework for rapid plugin development​.

Elle, MD

Elle, MD is developing a non-hormonal vaginal contraceptive ring designed to provide women with a once-monthly, hormone-free, safer and more comfortable birth control option.

emagix

emagix has developed AI-driven, non-invasive solutions for diagnosing retinal diseases and preserving vision, allowing earlier intervention and better patient outcomes.

Enaimco

Enaimco has developed digital twin solutions for optimizing offshore oil, gas, and renewable energy operations​ from the construction phase onwards.

Greenlight Analytical

Greenlight Analytical has developed HarvestIQ, a measurement device which delivers real-time crop validation solutions for high-value agriculture using AI-powered analysis​.

HealthEMe

HealthEMe is a healthcare platform offering AI-driven self-help tools for managing mental health and chronic illnesses throughout clinical care​ ensuring patients don't deteriorate while waiting or resort to non-clinical sources for support.

RFINE

RFINE is a clean technology company providing cost saving solutions for quick service coffee vendors to repurpose their coffee grounds into valuable food-grade resources.

Ring Rescue

Ring Rescue has developed a medical-grade solution for removing stuck rings safely, used by healthcare and emergency services​.

Satgen

Satgen is developing response solutions which use Bitcoin mining to optimize renewable energy production, repurpose waste heat, and support grid stability​ with a focus on wind and solar power.

Stemble Learning

Stemble has developed an AI-powered platform for automating course operations and assessments for improved learning outcomes in higher education​.

Think Self Management

Think Self Management is a digital platform which provides evidence-based tools for chronic disease self-management, to improve health outcomes, reduce healthcare costs and bridge research-to-practice in one digital hub.

Tickets are free here.

Bell Named MCI Executive Director

Tracy Bell

Tracy Bell

Well-known entrepreneur Tracy Bell is joining UNB Saint John-based Wallace McCain Institute as Executive Director, taking up her role over the next few weeks.

Bell who is from Rothesay, NB, first joined the institute in 2019 as a member of its Entrepreneurial Leaders Program, the institute said in a press release.

Bell co-founded a startup called Millennia TEA in 2017 and led that company until the start of this year when it closed operations. For the past seven months she has served as CEO of the Saint John Region Chamber of Commerce. 

As Executive Director of WMI, Bell’s focus will be on fostering unity within the institute’s network of members, alumni, and partners, while strengthening the group’s commitment to entrepreneurship and economic prosperity in Atlantic Canada.

Dal Innovates Launches Collide for Student Entrepreneurs

Eddie and Charlie Cobbold, co-founders of Pucktive, a venture that got its start in Collide.

Eddie and Charlie Cobbold, co-founders of Pucktive, a venture that got its start in Collide.

Collide, an initiative that provides entrepreneurship programming for students, is being rolled out across Atlantic Canada following a year-long pilot project. 

Collide was developed at Dalhousie University to mirror the national research commercialization accelerator Lab2Market which is designed for graduate students and faculty looking to commercialize their research.

Similarly, Collide fosters a culture of innovation and supports students launching ventures of all kinds, from creating social impact through filmmaking to designing apparel using high-performance fabrics. Collide is open to students of all disciplines and they can sign up at different stages of their entrepreneurial journey.

“I had this idea and the Collide program was there to accelerate the process of creating a product and launching a business,” said Eddie Cobbold in a press release. Cobbold founded Pucktive after participating in the Collide Discover, Validate, and Launch phases piloted at Dalhousie University.

Pucktive develops skate cut-resistant under gear for hockey players and has launched an online store.

Alice Aiken, Dal's vice-president of research and innovation, said today’s students have an intense desire to identify and solve real-world problems. 

“Collide is a launchpad for students across all academic disciplines to embrace innovation and develop essential entrepreneurship skills necessary for turning ideas into impactful ventures,” Aiken said.

“The skills learned in Collide are invaluable for a range of careers, whether launching a startup or innovating within an organization,” added Jeff Larsen, assistant vice-president of innovation and entrepreneurship at Dalhousie.

To date, Collide programming is available at: Dalhousie University; Mount Allison University; Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) and University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI).

Collide programs are also offered directly to students through Dal Innovates, working in partnership with Cape Breton University (CBU), Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD), Saint Mary’s University (SMU) and the Centre for Entrepreneurship Education and Development (CEED).

In the press release, the group said Dal Innovates was formed in 2020. Since then, over 900 students and faculty from 25 universities across Canada have participated. Alumni have gone on to raise $19 million in private and public funding.

Collide is funded by the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency.

Spellbook in Deal with Thomson Reuters

Spellbook CEO Scott Stevenson

Spellbook CEO Scott Stevenson

Spellbook, the St. John’s legal software-maker that earlier this year raised US$20 million, has announced it has integrated content from Thomson Reuters Practical Law to allow clients to leverage the capabilities of both platforms.

Users now have access to thousands of Practical Law’s attorney-editor created standard documents and clauses directly within Spellbook’s AI-powered contract drafting platform, the company said in a press release.

Spellbook said its mission is to reignite lawyers’ passion for practicing law by alleviating the drudgery from contract drafting and reviews. With the new arrangement, lawyers will be able to draft with unprecedented speed and accuracy, Spellbook said.

In its blog, Spellbook said contract drafting is a juggling act.

“Lawyers bounce between contract databases, old precedents, and Microsoft Word while tediously copying, pasting, and manually drafting. Not only does this fragmented process take up time: it's also a recipe for errors."

Said Spellbook co-founder and CEO Scott Stevenson: “Since Thomson Reuters Ventures invested in us in 2023, we’ve been bullish about the potential of combining our AI drafting tool with the most trusted commercial legal collection of drafting resources in the world.” 

Spellbook claims to be the leading provider of legal AI for transactional law, and says it has helped more than 2,500 legal teams improve their contract workflows and eliminate legal drudgery.

Avalon Prepares To Enter U.S. Market

The NOVAC display table in St. John's.

The NOVAC display table in St. John's.

With its first NOVAC holographic display table in operation, Avalon Holographics of St. John’s is preparing to ramp up sales in the coming year and deploy working models to the U.S.

The company, which can legitimately claim to be a global leader in holographic display technology, received a $1.02 million grant from the Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Industry, Energy and Technology in August to enhance NOVAC so it can be transported. The total cost of the project was $3.9 million.

Avalon has completed its first NOVAC display table. Its display surface is about one square yard, and the holograms on it are about one foot deep. It allows holographic simulations, meaning full-colour 3D displays in minute detail that can be manipulated easily. The problem is that the complex device is in St. John’s and can’t be moved without disrupting the system. The current project is enhancing the machine so it can be built in St. John’s and shipped to bigger markets.

“This funding is crucial for us to refine and enhance our NOVAC holographic display table, making it more accessible to our customers around the world,” said Avalon Holographics Founder and President Wally Haas in a recent statement. “We are committed to delivering a high-quality outcome that not only benefits Avalon but also the province as a whole.”

Haas is the former founder of Avalon Microelectronic, which he sold in 2010 to Altera, now part of Intel. Five years later he founded Avalon Holographics, using the proceeds of his exit to build a company he hoped would lead the world in holographic imaging, or three-dimensional images produced by disruptions in light beams.

The flagship product is the NOVAC display table, which Haas says is “the world’s first truly holographic display.” Haas describes the mechanism as 3,000 TV sets in the space of one TV set. To give people an idea of what it’s like, he advises them to think of the chess game in the original Star Wars movie.

The first market for the product, which costs about $5 million, will be the defense establishment, in which the NOVAC can give miliary planners a detailed 3D display of critical terrain, showing obstructions, infrastructure, communication capabilities and other information. It’s a tool that could help with decisions on which lives may depend, so defence officials have shown keen interest in NOVAC, said Haas.

“I think it’s going to be super-exciting,” said Haas in an interview. “All the people who see the NOVAC table-top display get really excited, but to fully understand it you have to see it. But there’s only one in the world and it’s in St. John’s and not many people can get to St. John’s easily.”

This is why portability is such an important aspect of R&D for the Avalon team, which now amounts to 90 employees. The company has almost completed its first travel unit and has struck an agreement to send it to the University of Central Florida in Orlando, where prospective clients can view it.

Haas added that the company expects to have four trials with American clients in 2025, which he hopes will lead to sales.

Avalon meanwhile is working on a flat screen product, which would cost less and be more suitable for the medical market. It’s in talks with one hospital in Boston about the product, though it probably won’t be ready for a full launch for three years or more.

This product could be used for such tasks as the training of students, explaining complex medical procedures to patients, and in preparing for surgery. Said Haas: “To understand what’s going on inside the body without cutting someone open is valuable.”

Precision Medicine Conference To Focus on Cancer

The inaugural Atlantic Precision Medicine Conference will be held in Halifax next week with an agenda focused on delivering the right cancer treatment to the right patient at the right time.

Precision medicine, aka personalized medicine, takes into account the genetic makeup of an individual and their cancer when devising treatment. Specialists analyze the genes and other biomarkers in patients and their cancers to assess which therapies will be effective in each case.

At a time when many don’t even have a family doctor, it might be surprising to learn that these innovations are quite advanced in this region, thanks to the work of various centres of excellence.

“Saint John Regional Hospital in New Brunswick was the first laboratory in Canada to offer comprehensive genomic profiling, which analyzes over 500 genes for tumour mutations that can guide treatment,” conference organizer Dr. Michael Carter told Entrevestor.

“Nova Scotia is leading in a number of ways,” said the doctor who is Medical Director of the Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory at Nova Scotia Health, among other roles. 

“In Nova Scotia, we have been performing biomarker testing on every patient diagnosed with lung cancer, regardless of stage, since 2017, a first in Canada.  We were also one of the first hospitals to introduce testing for all patients with metastatic colon cancer.”

Carter said research conducted at Dalhousie University and the Beatrice Hunter Cancer Research institute is driving progress.

“It’s an advantage to be a province with one big city because it allows a concentration of infrastructure and expertise, leading to efficient centralized biomarker testing and cutting-edge research.”

Precision medicine is still in its infancy but the number of targeted therapies is increasing.

An emerging technology is liquid biopsies of solid tumours, which means patients can have a blood test instead of having a tumour biopsied with a needle.

“We can identify tumour DNA that is circulating in the patient’s blood,” Carter said. “By performing testing on the blood, we don’t need to biopsy the tumour, which avoids the risks associated with a needle biopsy in the lung or liver, such as bleeding or infection.

“A patient can provide a blood sample in Yarmouth or Sydney which can be couriered to Halifax, meaning there’s no need for the patient to travel to get a biopsy, which often requires paying for a hotel and taking time off work.”

AI is an increasingly important tool.

“AI is very exciting. We are now digitizing glass slides for analysis by AI,” Carter said. “The AI can identify aspects of tumours that we as humans cannot. AI could replace some molecular testing down the road but it’s still too early, the algorithms will sometimes make incorrect predictions.”

Precision medicine can actually save the healthcare system money, Carter said.

“On balance, precision medicine can save money, at least in some cases, as it can save patients from having to undergo therapies that are ineffective and unpleasant.

“The side effects and toxicity of conventional chemotherapy are very significant. Getting a patient on the best drug for them can sometimes spare them these side effects and lead to savings.”

The advances in treatment are particularly valuable as cancer cases are rising, especially in the young.

“In people under 50, colon cancer rates have doubled and rectal cancer rates have quadrupled,” Carter said. “I see it every day, sadly. It is a shock to see metastatic colon cancer in people that age.”

There are lots of theories about why rates are rising: microplastics; obesity; ultraprocessed foods; chemical exposure are all mooted, but no one is sure.

The conference will bring together specialists from many disciplines and will include the personal experiences of cancer patients.

Carter hopes the comprehensive approach will allow attendees to break out of their respective silos and see the broader picture, leading to better and more equitable access to care across the region.

He is optimistic about the survivability of cancer, foreseeing a time when cancer will be a manageable chronic disease.

“The North Star would be turning cancer into a manageable chronic disease like high blood pressure or diabetes. We have already seen this in one kind of blood cancer – chronic myelogenous leukemia. We identified a mutation and created a drug to target the mutation. Patients can now live into their 80s.

“Thanks to immunotherapy (treatment that stimulates a patient’s immune response), some patients with metastatic cancer are being cured. This is not infrequent with melanoma and a certain type of colon cancer. We are seeing patients walk away from metastatic cancer.”

He spends most of his working life in the lab analyzing tumours and says he loves helping direct treatment:

“Working with oncologists, and hearing stories of patients’ amazing responses to treatment gives me the motivating hope to show up every day and try to make a difference.”

The conference will open with a networking event at the Halifax Marriott Harbour Front Hotel on November 7, continuing with a full day of discussions and presentations on November 8.

The conference is supported by Life Sciences Nova Scotia.

Tickets here.

Invest NS Recovers $551K of Stolen Money

Invest Nova Scotia has recovered almost all the $573,000 stolen from it in a phishing scam this past spring, the economic development agency said Friday.

In July, the economic development agency said an imposter posing as a venture capital executive stole the money, which was intended for the investment group Sandpiper Ventures. The theft was the work of a hacker using a Russian VPN.

On Friday, Director of Strategic Communications Shawn Hirtle said $551,000 of the stolen money ended up in an RBC bank account. The agency worked with the provincial Department of Justice to launch a court action to get that money back and was successful in August.

There is another $20,000 in a BMO account that the province is now working to get back, and Hirtle said it expects to be successful. Assuming Invest Nova Scotia recovers this second tranche of money, it will be down about $2,500 because of the scam.

"We understand we are fortunate to be recovering the majority of the funds," said Hirtle in an email. "Invest Nova Scotia continues to take this matter seriously." 

Hirtle added the Halifax Police Department has begun a criminal investigation into the incident, which is ongoing.

Tribe Seeks Applicants to BUILD and its Pitch Contest

Tribe Network, the Halifax-based startup support organization for BIPOC founders, is seeking participants for several of its programs.

The 15-week BSP BUILD program is a virtual offering that provides expert coaching in key disciplines like leadership, marketing, business development, finance and more.

To be eligible, you must be an early-stage Black or racialized entrepreneur in Atlantic Canada. Some participants will also have the chance to apply for consultancy funding.

Applications close November 4th

Apply here,

The Innovate and Elevate Pitch Competition allows Black Atlantic Canadian founders to practise their three-minute business pitches and receive feedback from peers and professionals.

Presented by Tribe’s Black Startup Project, the contest is open to new and existing Black business owners across the region. It is divided into two parts: Start for new ventures, and Build for growth-stage companies.

The winner receives a $500 Visa gift card. Applications close October 27th

Apply here.

NS Hospice Team Wins for Grief Library

Terri Milton (left), Sarah Scott (right). Photo by Vincent Bélanger, Montreal.

Terri Milton (left), Sarah Scott (right). Photo by Vincent Bélanger, Montreal.

A new idea that supports rural Nova Scotians has won the International Palliative Care Innovator of 2024 award in Montreal.

The Grief Library allows patients and their loved ones to borrow books on grief and grieving free of charge. Books are received and returned in the mail, something that is of particular benefit to Nova Scotians who live in rural areas.

The idea was created by Sarah Scott and Terri Milton. Sarah is a grief specialist for the Valley Hospice Foundation. Terri is a librarian in academic and public settings and is volunteering for Valley Health Foundation in this role.

“It’s such a simple idea. We laugh at being called innovators…The award host said we were ‘brilliantly analogue,’” Sarah told Entrevestor.

She said the simple idea is a response to the province’s patchy internet coverage, poor public transit, and declining traditional supports.

“When I visited patients in rural communities, I was struck with how isolated people become and how so many of our new grief resources are internet based,” she said. “These resources don’t have reach into rural Nova Scotia and the demographic is not as connected in that way.

“When I visited folks with serious illness, I realized that once you can’t drive, you are physically isolated because of the lack of public transit. Often the family has moved away, and the normal community supports for grief aren’t there, such as rural churches and neighbours next door who used to give natural grief support -- the people who’d show up with a casserole.

“In rural communities, there are now fewer natural gathering points. If someone’s spouse had died, they said how lonely they were and unconnected.”

Sarah said the Grief Library allows rural dwellers to benefit from the many publications on grief that have been published in recent years.

“Covid seemed to spark a recognition that the normal experience of grief is a sense of loss, and we have all collectively experienced so many losses,” she said.

“There is a broadening understanding of the need to talk about it. Vulnerability is the word of our generation. People are self-publishing about their experiences of grief…These amplifying voices let people know they are not alone.”

The Grief Library is funded by donations received by the Valley Hospice Foundation and is volunteer led. In Montreal, it bested 57 submissions from 14 countries at the Canadian Virtual Hospice’s 2024 Innovation Challenge to take home the title and the $1,000 cash prize. 

Sarah said she was happy to learn that many of the attendees at the conference intend to create their own Grief Libraries.

“Terri and Sarah’s Grief Library stood out among a highly competitive field of innovations from around the world. It is an outstanding example of a locally-driven solution making a real difference,” said Shelly Cory, Executive Director of the Canadian Virtual Hospice.

The Canadian Virtual Hospice is a world-leading online source of information and support about advanced illness, palliative care, loss and grief. 

ACOA Funds 7 Dartmouth Innovators

The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) is lending a total of more than $6 million to seven small and medium-sized businesses to help them scale up and modernize their operations.

The following companies are receiving loans through the Regional Economic Growth through Innovation program:

Farnell Packaging is receiving $3,000,000 to purchase and install automated processing and printing equipment to support its expansion plans. The money will allow the company, which provides flexible packaging solutions for different industries and sectors, to increase production, realize operational efficiencies, explore new opportunities in export markets, and develop new sustainable and environmentally-friendly packaging solutions.

Ring Rescue is receiving $950,000 to expand its next-generation device suite. This contribution will accelerate growth in North America and support the company's entry into new European markets, furthering its goal of becoming the global standard of care.

Sunrise Foods is receiving $800,000 to purchase dry storage and automated processing equipment to improve operating efficiencies and expand production capacity. Sunrise Foods currently prepares private label snack foods like cheese and crackers. This project will enable Sunrise Foods to explore new export markets and additional product lines.

Sunsel Systems Manufacturing Corporation will use $750,000 to purchase advanced manufacturing equipment to expand production, increase productivity and improve quality control measures. The electronic manufacturing services company uses cutting-edge technology to provide custom solutions for the concept, design and commercialization of equipment manufacturers’ products. The upgrades will help Sunsel meet customer demand, increase sales, reduce waste, and seize new market opportunities.

Ace Machining will receive $612,330 to acquire advanced manufacturing technology and hire a production manager with specialized skills to increase efficiency, productivity and competitiveness. Ace Machining offers manual and CNC (Computer Numerical Code) machining, fabrication, welding and waterjet cutting to customers across North America. 

HFX Steel Framing Solutions is receiving $270,000 to acquire equipment to produce heavier steel framing for larger high-rise buildings. The company manufactures and assembles light gauge steel structures in its facility and ships these ready-to-install prefab structures to clients, allowing clients to build homes faster than with traditional methods. The new advanced technology will enable HFX Steel to significantly increase efficiency, reduce costs, and expand its markets.

Aurea Technologies is receiving $99,682 to develop its next-generation wind turbine. Aurea specializes in designing and producing highly efficient personal renewable energy systems. This project will help Aurea explore how its existing products can be further developed for use in the field to support charging larger technologies, positioning the company to expand to new markets.  

Disclosure: Cat Adalay, the CEO of Aurea, is the daughter of the founders of Entrevestor.

Propel’s Traction and Growth Names 8 Companies

Virtual Accelerator Propel has announced the eight companies that make up its Fall 2024 Traction and Growth cohort.

Traction and Growth is for later-stage founders who have proven recurring revenue and appear poised to become high-growth companies.

“With the industry's challenges of keeping up with rapidly growing demand, it's no surprise to see a number of strong industrial and construction tech companies joining this season's cohort,” said Propel Coach Richard Jones in a statement.

Propel works with over 100 startups each year to validate product/market fit, find repeat customers and raise financing. Propel’s dedicated virtual coaching approach allows founders to easily access coaching, content and mentors from around the world, the group said.

This cohort includes:

AIM - Asset Intelligence Management Inc.

Province: New Brunswick

Founder: Mark Smyth

AIM offers a mobile fleet tracking tool purposely designed for the construction and mining industries to help streamline data entry and provide insightful metrics to increase fleet performance.

ClimaTech Innovations

Province: New Brunswick

Founder: Dylan Hubble

ClimaTech Innovations provides turnkey solutions for businesses to meet their climate action goals through carbon footprint analysis, forest preservation, and restoration projects. Their approach is simple, tangible, and accessible.

e-WorkSAFE Inc

Province: New Brunswick
Founders: Victor Evans / Alexander Bakulev

e-WorkSAFE Inc. is a software company incorporated in 2020, focusing on providing solutions to enhance workplace safety compliance, particularly in the electrical safety domain. Their flagship product, e-WorkSafe, offers a comprehensive platform that automates electrical job safety programs and plans, facilitating regulatory compliance for businesses of all sizes.

Greenii Inc.

Province: Nova Scotia

Founder: Purushothaman Cannane

Greenii invented semi-automatic machines to swiftly upcycle old newspapers, magazines, brochures, flyers into paper bags without any pulping or bleaching processes. Itsmachines can produce 500 paper bags per hour. These upcycled paper bags help capture carbon emissions, save trees, reduce pollution, reduce what’s going to landfill and provide local employment.

Gutter Saver PRO Inc.

Province: Nova Scotia
Founder: Lucie Quigley

Gutter Saver PRO is a durable, innovative tool designed to protect gutters from ladder damage. Ideal for both professionals and DIY users, it transfers weight to the fascia, ensuring safety and preventing costly repairs.

INSTINCT Dog Training Inc.

Province: Nova Scotia

Founders: Brian Burton / Sarah Fraser

INSTINCT Dog Behavior & Training leverages science-backed methods, AI-driven insights, and personalized care to prevent and solve complex dog behavior challenges.

Pique Innovations Inc. (DBA Construction AI)

Province: Nova Scotia

Founders: Jeff Graham / Stephen Nestmann

Construction AI automates project planning and estimating, using machine learning to convert 2D PDFs into 3D models, reducing errors and boosting efficiency, while also enabling smarter, faster, future proof construction processes.

Steady Innovation Corporation

Province: Newfoundland and Labrador

Founder: Daniel Genest
Steady Innovation Corporation, founded in 2019, specializes in developing software solutions for the home repair sector. Its flagship product, FixDen, connects homeowners with vetted tradespeople, providing a seamless, transparent, and secure platform for managing home repairs through features like instant messaging, legal contracts, and predetermined pricing.

To benefit from Propel programs, founders are encouraged to apply here.

L2M Validate Welcomes 19 Teams

L2M Validate Participant Cat Evans

L2M Validate Participant Cat Evans

Dalhousie University and the University of New Brunswick have accepted 19 teams into their Fall 2024 Lab2Market Validate cohort, which helps researchers assess the commercial viability of their work.

One of several Lab2Market programs, the 16-week Validate program brings together researchers and business development specialists and lets them work with mentors. The goal is to determine whether research conducted in a university can be spun out into a commercial venture, and if so how.

The 19 teams – many of which are so early they don’t have company names yet – come from six universities, and all but three of the teams are from Atlantic Canada. They are working in such diverse fields as environmental sustainability, engineering, and healthcare.

“Lab2Market develops the skills talented young people need to commercialize research, start ventures, and think like innovators,” said Jeff Larsen, Assistant Vice-President of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Dalhousie. “We are thrilled to be expanding our Lab2Market Validate program across Atlantic Canada.”

One participant is Dalhousie researcher Cat Evans, who is using satellite images and AI to create a tool to visualize and predict harmful algal blooms. She and partner Dr. Chris Whidden call their project SMART-HAB.

“Lab2Market Validate gives me the opportunity to engage directly with industry, government, and affected communities to figure out how we can advance our water monitoring methods to help keep waterways and coastlines safe,” Evans said. “It’s been amazing to hear first-hand from those on the ground about what they need, what resources they have, and how we can help.”

Here are the teams participating in the current cohort:

 

Ali Ebrahimi, Dr. Stephen Czarnuch

Memorial University

Enhancing subsea video quality with AI to enable superior visual inspections for offshore oil and gas, marine research, and subsea robotics industries.

Aloyna Chris Mendonce, Dr. Anna Ignaszak

University of New Brunswick     

Improving HER2 metastatic breast cancer marker monitoring with cutting-edge aptasensor technology.

Anu Adamson, Dr. Michael Metzger        

Dalhousie University     

Helping battery manufacturers save time and money by testing the inactive components of their cells and reducing self-discharge.

Aylar Abouzarkhanifard, Dr. Lihong Zhang, Dr. Mohammad Al Janaideh   

Memorial University      

Harnessing ocean wave energy through vibration technology to power remote sensors, ensuring sustainable and reliable energy for environmental monitoring in harsh and inaccessible regions.

Benjamin Dringoli, Dr. David Cooke         

McGill University            

Their product, called TRAQC, takes advanced laser technology used in research labs and builds high-sensitivity, quality-assurance tools for high-volume manufacturing.

Cat Evans, Dr. Chris Whidden     

Dalhousie University     

SMART-HAB is a machine-learning tool for near-real-time algae bloom identification.

Daniel Ndegwa Kimani, Dr. Marya Ahmed            

University of Prince Edward Island

Developing nanogel-based delivery systems to enhance the efficacy and stability of cosmetic products for skin care.

Haitham Shoman, Dr. Ahmed Aoude      

McGill University            

Qalam Health, a medical device company, is developing imaging technology to transform how surgeons identify and remove bone cancer during surgery.

Japhet Anesu Machipisa, Dr. Stephanie Shaw      

University of Prince Edward Island          

Transforming wastepaper biomass into sustainable solutions for agriculture, energy storage, water and air purification.

Justin Greige, Dr. Jeremy Brown

Dalhousie University     

This team is developing minimally invasive surgical devices using an in-house micro-fabrication facility. They are miniaturized ultrasound imaging endoscopes and miniaturized ultrasound therapeutic devices.

Kevin Henry, Dr. Antonio Bolufe-Rohler  

University of Prince Edward Island          

Connecting businesses with student talent to provide AI and tech services while advancing practical learning opportunities for the workforce of tomorrow.

Mariana Toro Ramirez, Dr. Tsz Ho Kwok  

Concordia University     

Utilizing tiny machine learning, edge computing, and IoT to develop smart wearable devices for livestock welfare and location monitoring.

Michael Giacomantonio, Dr. Patrick Murphy       

Dalhousie University     

Improving cell culture research with streamlined, error-reducing kits that enhance data reliability and boost research productivity.

Mirvala Sadrafshari, Dr. Lihong Zhang, Dr. Octavia Dobre

Memorial University

Enhancing chip design with AI-driven placement tools that improve efficiency and precision in integrated circuit development.

Mostafa Javaheri Moghadam, Dr. Stijn De Baerdemacker

University of New Brunswick     

LigandQI uses quantum technologies to help pharmaceutical companies design better, more effective drugs by understanding how molecules interact.

Muhammad Adeel Ahsan, Dr. Oscar De Silva       

Memorial University      

Deploying drone swarms with AI to quickly locate missing persons in dense forests, enhancing search and rescue operations while supporting environmental conservation and sustainable forestry management.

Poppy Riddle, Dr. Philippe Mongeon       

Dalhousie University     

There are over 200 million scientific works globally. This team is working on making this searchable, understandable, and useful for education.

Kusal Tennakoon, Dr. Oscar De Silva        

Memorial University      

ARMIS (Autonomous Real-time Mapping and Imaging System) uses advanced robotics and AI technology to offer a way to navigate inside buildings without getting lost.

Zohreh Zeidy, Dr. Katie Wadden

Memorial University      

Developing a fertility application that employs behaviour change science and personalized health tracking to enhance reproductive health outcomes.

Free RevGen Sales Event Set for Nov. 12-13

RevGen Atlantic 24 is being offered free to founders wanting to boost their sales strategies.

Organizers say RevGen Atlantic 24' will equip the region's founders with proven strategies for boosting customer adoption and scaling revenue. The event is aimed at ventures focused on improving the health of people, planet, and business.

Attendees will learn from B2B sales experts Kent Summers, James MacDonald, and Michael Levinger from Spinnaker Sales Group, as they walk founders, teams and ecosystem support staff through practical tools and strategies proven to boost customer adoption and scale revenue.

Organizers announced last week that the event will be offered free thanks to the support of Life Sciences Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island BioAlliance, Bounce Health Innovation, and the Nova Scotia Health Innovation Hub.

The event will be held November 12 and 13 at the Nova Scotia Health Innovation Hub in Halifax. When registering, use promo code RevGen24-Comp.

Register here.

Climative CEO Morton Wins Clean50 and Clean16

Winston Morton, left, and Delta Management Group CEO Gavin Pitchford.

Winston Morton, left, and Delta Management Group CEO Gavin Pitchford.

Winston Morton, CEO of Fredericton-based Climative, a maker of AI-powered low-carbon plans for buildings, has been recognized as one of Canada's Clean50 for 2025.

Morton has also been named one of Canada's Clean16, distinguishing him as the top leader in the Technology & Telecom category for his contributions to sustainability and the clean economy.

The Clean50 Awards, curated by Delta Management Group, are presented annually to honour individuals who have made significant impacts in promoting the clean economy in Canada.

“Time is of the essence, and we are proud to be at the forefront of creating innovative digital solutions that accelerate the decarbonization of buildings," said Morton in a statement. 

Founded in 2014 as Simptek, Climative has an AI-powered platform that performs rapid, remote energy assessments of homes at scale. The platform has assessed over 5 million homes in 682 cities, uncovering a potential 55 megatonnes of CO2 savings, the company said.

"On a mission to revolutionize home energy efficiency, Winston and his team are disrupting how home energy assessments are performed and how homeowners access resources to perform energy efficiency retrofits," Delta Management Group CEO Gavin Pitchford said.  

"The status quo – performing home energy assessments on-site – would take 142 years to retrofit buildings to net-zero – time we don't have." 

Morton will join 144 past and incoming Clean50 honourees at the Clean50 Summit 14.0 in Toronto on October 10. 

Summer Institute Celebrates 11th Cohort

Now in its 11th year, University of New Brunswick's Summer Institute program is graduating four new companies. The Institute teaches sales, marketing, and customer validation skills to companies making positive social and environmental impacts. 

All the founders will be at the Wu Conference Centre in Fredericton to present their companies and ideas on October 22 at 3pm.  You can register here.

The three-month accelerator offers founders more than $6,000 for living costs, $2,000 for prototyping, as well as skills training and coaching. Since it began in 2014, the program has graduated more than 60 ventures.

This year's graduating companies are:

Home School To Go

Home School To Go claims to be the only bilingual and holistic program in the world for homeschooling, providing parents with project-based curricula pre-K-12 and teacher support.

Melanie Lyons

Bodies by Mel Fitness Box is for those who like to work out in their hotel rooms or for people at home who wish to switch up their workouts.

Moehnke Training Academy

The company aims to build an inter-provincial training academy offering affordable access to defence training.

Tinku Wellness

Tinku Wellness has a hacienda in the Andes Mountains offering meditation, yoga, hiking, bird watching, sports therapy and Ecuadorian cuisine to deliver a transformative escape from the stresses of modern life.

Ocean Startup Project Names Participants

The Ocean Startup Project has selected 16 early-stage companies for the 2024 Ocean Startup Challenge cohort. Each will receive up to $25,000 in non-dilutive funding, along with support to scale their ocean-focused businesses.

Funded mainly by the federal government and Canada's Ocean Supercluster, the national Startup Project is backed by the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, the P.E.I. BioAlliance and Invest Nova Scotia, among other organizations. Launched in 2020, the challenge has now spent just over $2.25 million to back 95 startups, organizers said in a statement.

This year’s cohort spans key sectors of the blue economy, including marine biotechnology, sustainable seafood, and autonomous vessels, with a notable rise in seaweed-related innovations, organizers said.

“By working closely with them (startups), we're gaining a much deeper understanding of the trends driving innovation in the sector, as well as the unique hurdles these early-stage companies face,” said Natasha Legay, Ocean Challenge Director at the Ocean Startup Project.

The cohort includes:

● Aquarius Fishing Technologies Inc. (QC): Developing an underwater plane that precisely controls the depth of commercial fishing nets, preventing contact with the seabed and helping fishermen improve profitability.

● Atlantic Echo Solutions (NL): Developing acoustic methods to remotely measure sound speed profiles in the ocean.

● BioLabMate Composite Inc. (NL, NS): Producing biodegradable labware from seaweed bioplastics to reduce plastic waste in labs and healthcare settings.

● Celerity Craft Inc. (BC): Developing the Dynamic Air Cushion Vehicle (DACV), a marine vessel that significantly reduces the environmental impact of marine transportation while delivering faster, smoother and more efficient travel.

● Cytochrome (NL): Developing ocean-based reactor systems that capture and permanently store CO2 in a highly cost-effective way.

● Deepwater Robotics (ON): Building a fleet of long-range and low-cost autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) that will travel the ocean for months at a time to complete a variety of survey missions across the globe.

● Eagle Eyes Search Inc. (BC): Transforms AUVs into intelligent assistants for public safety, converting the overwhelming stream of data they produce into clear actionable insights.

● EcoMarine Technologies Inc. (NS): Building an autonomous ROV designed to clean ships' hulls while collecting fouling debris to prevent environmental contamination, all integrated with AI-driven sensors for real-time monitoring and predictive maintenance, offering a sustainable and cost-effective solution to the global biofouling problem.

● Fibr.Bio (BC): Pioneering sustainable performance fibers by transforming organic bio-waste into a high-performance spandex alternative through advanced bacterial fermentation.

● Kelp Island Inc. (BC): Addressing climate change through material design and product innovation.

● Miha Biotech (BC): Engineering a new type of bandage using seaweed that provides effective cooling treatment and painless removal for burns.

● Ocean AID (BC): Empowering marine decision-making through real-time AI object detection, supporting sustainable oceans.

● Ocean Riot (QC): Delivering turnkey automated solutions for seafloor resource and biomass assessments using marine robotics and artificial intelligence.

● REPWR (Waabaag Energy Corp) (ON): Developing a standardized, modular solar energy system that rapidly installs on shipping containers to provide renewable energy for marine transportation and port logistics.

● Seacork Studios (BC): Developing biodegradable acoustic panels from local seaweed by rethinking our relationship to materials and their origins.

● Spoitz Enterprises Inc. (AB, BC): Building the seaweed industry in North America by improving the areas that are severely lacking access to seaweed processing and testing to create a range of stabilized liquid and solid products for the food, agriculture, and chemical industry use.

Deal Will Help AIR Expand Nationally

AIR CEO Jackie Kinley

AIR CEO Jackie Kinley

The Halifax-based Atlantic Institute for Resilience has partnered with the CAN Health Network in an agreement that allows AIR to collaborate with health organizations across Canada.

AIR was founded in 2014 by psychiatrist Jackie Kinley, the institute’s president and CEO. She aimed to develop programs to boost resilience among workers.

Resilience is the capacity to not only endure but to grow through challenge and adversity, Kinley told Entrevestor in an earlier interview.

“Resilience can be developed. It has several aspects, including mental, emotional and social. Emotional resilience enables us to respond, not react. It helps us know our limits and when we need to slow down and relax.

“Low resilience puts people at risk of illness and injury. And we know the immense costs this assumes in human, social and economic terms.”

Over the last few years, AIR training has been tested in various industries and has shown benefits in psychological safety and reductions in stress and burnout, the company said in a statement.

AIR’s beachhead market is long-term care facilities and health care organizations in Eastern Canada and the United States, where mental health issues can be particularly challenging. One of the first initiatives in the agreement with CAN Health is a commercialization project with Shannex, a provider of living options for older adults.

Shannex will use AIR’s eMpower and Involve programs (the first is for employees in the workplace, the second for those who want to return to work). The programs allow employees to explore and practise real-life situations through software called The Brain Gym, which they discuss with their coach.

For instance, working with the software might reveal that someone at work has crossed an employee’s boundaries. With the help of the coach, they learn how to establish boundaries in life, Chief Operating Officer Kyle Milley told Entrevestor on Wednesday.

The company said statistics show that 1 in 4 employees report being highly stressed, with almost two-thirds saying their work is their primary source of stress. Post-pandemic, high levels of stress, burnout, turnover, and disability costs are impacting many sectors.

The company is financing its small team of four staff and external consultants through its sales at long-term care organizations. In recent months, the growing company has completed Propel’s Traction and Growth program for scaling companies and Invest Nova Scotia’s Accelerate program.

Kinley said resilience training can return people to their earlier, healthier selves.

“We are born well. We’re born wired a certain way, but we pick up habits of mind and behaviour that don’t serve us; they hinder our performance.

“This is about the science of health and performance. We have the power to engineer ourselves. It’s about building our psychological infrastructure.”

Uluer Wins EY Atlantic Entrepreneur of the Year

Gina Kinsman, Hakan Uluer and EY Partner Mike Lutes

Gina Kinsman, Hakan Uluer and EY Partner Mike Lutes

Hakan Uluer, CEO of The Bertossi Group of restaurants, has won this year’s EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Award  for the Atlantic Region.

Uluer, who received the award at a gala in Halifax last week, operates a group of high-end restaurants in the Halifax area, including The Bicycle Thief, Ristorante a Mano, La Frasca and il Mercato Trattoria.

“Hakan’s story is a testament to the power of hard work, culinary passion and the ability to create a sense of home within restaurant walls," Gina Kinsman, Entrepreneur Of The Year Atlantic Co-Director, said in a statement. “His leadership has been nothing short of transformative for The Bertossi Group, driving remarkable growth while upholding a dedication to top-quality ingredients and exceptional service, offering diners an unforgettable, authentic experience.”

The list of nominees included several members of the Atlantic startup community, which are differentiated by the role of innovation in their businesses. The finalists included Amir Akbari and Farough Motasemi of Fredericton-based Anessa and Mina Mekhail of Halifax-based Freshr Sustainable Technologies Inc.

Anessa has developed AI-powered solutions for biogas project assessment, optimization, and tracking. By transforming organic and agricultural waste into renewable energy, the company is optimizing the use of resources and helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Earlier this year, Anessa won the Opportunities New Brunswick Innovative Exporter Award.

Freshr, which was founded by biomaterials researcher Mekhail in 2017, makes packaging from sustainable materials that work to prolong the shelf life of fresh fish, with the goal of eventually including other proteins. The company raised $1.7 million in 2022.

Fredericton’s Marcel LeBrun, best known as the CEO of Radian6, which exited for $326 million in 2011, received a special EY Ripples Social Citation for his new registered charity 12 Neighbours. The organization builds tiny homes for homeless people and provides support to help them thrive.

ACOA Funds 9 Startups with $4M

The funding recipients at Volta on Friday.

The funding recipients at Volta on Friday.

The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency on Friday announced non-dilutive funding totalling $4 million for  nine Halifax startups to help them scale.

The federal regional development agency revealed the funding under ACOA’s Regional Economic Growth through Innovation program at a reception at Volta on Friday. All of the contributions were loans, except for a $50,000 grant for Shoelace Learning.

The largest payment went to Milk Moovement, which provides real-time digital information to all levels of the dairy supply chain through its cloud-based software. It received $1.47 million to help increase automation and implement process improvements to reduce its client onboarding time.

The other recipients were:

MIMOSA Diagnostics Inc., $500,000

MIMOSA has developed a handheld tissue-imaging device capable of detecting skin injuries before they are visible to the naked eye.

UpBeing Inc., $494,000

This behavioural health data analytics company has developed a wellbeing tracking and insights application that helps individuals improve their health and wellbeing.

Peer Ledger Inc., $450,000

Peer Ledger Inc. has developed “Digital Product Passport” software that helps participants in circular economies. Businesses can track their supply chains and make transparent key attributes of their commercial products.

Swiftsure Innovations Inc., $325,000

Swiftsure has developed a medical device to simultaneously flush and suction the mouth, enabling an essential last step in oral care for patients on life support. It allows nurses to rinse organic debris from the oral cavity, which wasn’t possible with previous tools.

Easy Platter (Krava Inc.), 210,000

Easy Platter has developed software that helps chefs to arrange to cook healthy meals in people’s homes. After a customer books a chef, sets the number of meals, and specifies their nutrition goals, the chef arrives to cook, stock meals, and clean up.

Rafflebox Technologies Inc., $200,000

Rafflebox is an online platform that enables charitable groups to run and manage online raffles and lotteries for fundraising.

Talkatoo Inc., $166,000

This company builds AI productivity software for veterinarians, helping them to save time on medical records and documentation.

SUMS Capital (Startup Metrics Inc.), $150,000

SUMS aims to encourage the private investor community, leading to more investment in early-stage companies through better investor relations.

Shoelace Learning (Eyeread Inc.), $50,000 grant.

Shoelace has created an online learning platform that teaches and assesses students through digital games.

The press release is available here and a full description of the companies and funding packages can be found here.

Athlete Aid Focuses on Young Athletes

Athlete Aid co-founders Morgan MacKinnon, left, and Isaac Hierlihy.

Athlete Aid co-founders Morgan MacKinnon, left, and Isaac Hierlihy.

With the help of AI, two student entrepreneurs plan to help coaches and parents of injured junior athletes assess whether it is safe to let a player back in the game.

Isaac Hierlihy and Morgan MacKinnon, both 19, and second-year university students (Hierlihy at St. Francis Xavier and MacKinnon at Saint Mary’s), are building a company called Athlete Aid, which includes an AI-supported triage system for assessing injuries.

The fledgling business has competitors but competitors do not incorporate triage tools and they focus on professional sports and Division One teams in the U.S, CFO Hierlihy told Entrevestor.

“But we are looking at highly funded amateur sports teams…and we are looking to integrate triage and tracking into one solution,” he said. “We make it clear we are not doctors. This is just advice backed by medical research.”

Over the last year, the founders have raised $28,000 in non-dilutive funding and are approaching a pre-seed funding round of $250,000 prior to a full launch in late 2025. They intend to use the $250,000 to expand the software development team and for customer acquisition.

“We are designing a tool to allow coaches and parents to make more medically insightful decisions at the field and rink,” said Hierlihy, a business student, during a break from preparing for mid-terms.

“The product will also allow coaches to track players’ recovery status and determine which players are at greatest risk of injury, as well as how they recover.”  

He said the two co-founders were sportsmen in high school and had lots of injuries.

“Our coaches didn’t know what was wrong. I was in hockey aged 12 and had a broken wrist. No one knew and I was sent back on the ice.”

Hierlihy said users of the product will click on the injured area on a map of the body and answer a series of questions, then the AI will give recommendations.

“A lot of times, the player will have to go to the hospital. We are an intermediary. Users get advice on the spot. Plus, coaches can see all the analytics of the team’s injuries at the end of the season. This last point is based on the 50 plus calls we have done with potential clients.”  

Hierlihy said the data could help coaches make decisions on how to prevent injuries. It will also be able to identify high-risk players by showing the relationships between all the variables.

The co-founders are working with a 21-year-old product development lead who attends UNB Fredericton and a board of advisors with an emergency room doctor and a corporate lawyer.

The $28,000 in non-dilutive funding acquired in the last 12 months comes from wins at contests such as University of New Brunswick’s Apex Business Plan Competition, and the Collide Launch Program through Dal Innovates.

Both founders are from Saint John, NB and also benefitted from ConnexionWorks co-working space, that supplied a young entrepreneur grant that is paying for development of the pilot MVP.

Hierlihy said he has always enjoyed solving problems. As co-founder of Valley Pressure Washing, he launched a house-washing business that generated $45,000 in sales during its first year.

He has high praise for all the assistance he has received along the way.

“In high school, I attended the IDEA Centre in Saint John, an entrepreneurship space, where the teacher, Mr. Van Beek, had an impact on every student. He cares about each student. I don’t want to give all the credit to him but he’s been a huge driver. Atlantic Canada has a ton of resources for young entrepreneurs like us.”

Charlotte Murray Joining Farmers’ Truck

Charlotte Murray

Charlotte Murray

After seven years coaching founders at virtual accelerator Propel, Charlotte Murray is joining Moncton social enterprise The Farmers’ Truck where she will work to improve food security across the continent.

The Farmers’ Truck provides fresh, accessible food in communities across North America through the use of mobile market trucks and through funding and supply partnerships with communities.

The company has experienced rapid growth in recent years. In 2022, Entrevestor reported how the venture nearly doubled its sales in 2021 as pandemic-related economic woes increased food insecurity in some parts of the United States.

CEO Fredéric Laforge said at the time that “food deserts,” which are regions where nutritious food is not readily available, had been exacerbated by inflation on the already small basket of goods available in those regions, as well as the typically lower income levels of residents. Many local charities responded by ramping up their operations, said Laforge, who described food trucks as a workable and comparatively capital efficient solution.

This week, Murray spoke to Entrevestor from Montreal where she is onboarding for her new role as Farmers’ Truck Chief Operating Officer.

“I’m excited to have found a Propel alumni company which is working with non-profits to deliver fresh food in underserved communities across North America,” said Murray, who will apply her experience building companies to the rapid expansion of Farmers’ Truck in the areas of business development, recruitment and operations.

“The delivery of fresh food is one of North America’s greatest challenges and the Farmers’ Truck is boosting food security in more than 20 American states and in Canada. By 2030, the aim is to feed one million families a week,” she said.

Before her stint at Propel, where she worked with more than 500 companies, Murray ran her own smart contract startup PACTA, and earlier worked in procurement and then brand management at Procter & Gamble.

As she undertakes her new role, Murray is considering how much the ecosystem in the region has evolved in recent years. Digital programming is now the norm -- Propel went virtual in 2018. Incorporating feedback from founders, the group will soon launch its updated Traction and Growth programs.

It's been a challenging few years for early-stage companies seeking investment and resilience is a word on many lips.

“There’s been a bit of a vacuum of early-stage funding, not just in Atlantic Canada,” Murray said. “From my perspective, it helps founders focus less on VC as the go-to. VC should be sought only when founders have gained traction in the market. Initially, they need to focus on the skills they need to build the business.”

She said founders in this famously friendly region still prioritize mutual support through hard times.

“All startup coaches at Propel have been founders,” she said. “Can we still count on founders supporting founders? Absolutely.”

Eigen Raises $2.6M

Erin Barrett, left, appeared with NBIF exec Heather Libbey

Erin Barrett, left, appeared with NBIF exec Heather Libbey

Fredericton-based Eigen Innovations, which sells an artificial intelligence system to perform quality control checks on production lines via thermal cameras, has raised a $2.6 million funding round.

The company said in a statement it has seen growth in demand for thermal imaging tech, and the raise comes after CEO Erin Barrett said at Entrevestor Live last month that the key to making Eigen scaleable has been to focus on that single, niche market, rather than seeking to offer AI tools for a broad range of quality control applications.

“The way April Dunford talks about it in her positioning book [Obviously Awesome] is differentiated value,” Barrett told attendees. “For years, we had a really hard time explaining this to customers, so we ended up with a funnel of prospects that weren’t the right fit. And we were asking our customers … to expend way too many calories trying to figure out, ‘Are you the right fit for me?’

“We’ve gotten on the other side of that, and we’re really excited about it. We’ve defined our ideal customer profile and we know our niche. We know we can’t be beat in our niche.”

The round also included investment from the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation and BDC Capital’s Women in Technology Venture Fund, as well as Swiss impact investor Momenta Ventures, which Barrett last month described as having been a key ally in the fundraising process. As part of the funding deal, Momenta Founding Partner Ken Forster is also joining Eigen’s board of directors.

“Momenta was an early investor in Eigen, anchoring our focus on industrial analytic solutions,“ said Forster in a statement. “I look forward to joining the board, helping accelerate the company to scale the adoption of its solutions within manufacturing.”

The statement also said NBIF Chief Executive Jeff White joined Eigen’s board earlier this year and played a pivotal role in helping Eigen raise the round.  

Eigen has also developed a new portable demo of their system to help illustrate the technology’s potential to would-be customers.

Barrett said the company decided earlier this year to focus primarily on thermal imaging and to cater to a narrower, more specific market, rather than indiscriminately chasing short-term revenue at the expense of resources that could otherwise improve the company’s scaleability. 

“My [chief revenue officer], he’d get on a call (after the refocusing), he’d have a supervisor in a manufacturing plant on the call,” recalled Barrett. “He’d show them the process that we’re talking about and the key domain experience we have in it. He’d talk about the value proposition and the problem we’re going to solve, and he couldn’t even get through slide two before the guy said, ‘Well, okay, I’ve got to talk about this plant over here that has this problem. Give me a budgetary next week.’”

Eigen was founded in 2012, growing out of research conducted at the University of New Brunswick and now has a little over 20 employees, according to LinkedIn data. Barrett joined in 2018 as vice president of sales and marketing, becoming CEO in September, 2022.

Genesis Names Ed Martin President and CEO

Genesis CEO Ed Martin

Genesis CEO Ed Martin

St. John’s innovation hub Genesis has appointed Ed Martin, formerly Director of the Memorial Centre for Entrepreneurship, its new President and Chief Executive Officer.

Before working as director at MCE, Martin co-founded and led Clockwork Fox Studios, creator of the popular education platform Zorbit's Math Adventure, leading the company through to its acquisition in 2021. He also worked as president/producer at Best Boy Entertainment, where he produced the award-winning film Closet Monster.

His entrepreneurial journey stretches back to his founding of the Memorial University chapter of Engineers Without Borders, which took him to Zambia for a year to work on projects aimed at poverty alleviation.

"We are delighted to welcome Ed," Sherry Walsh, Chair of the Genesis Board of Directors, said in a statement. "His unique mix of tech expertise and deep commitment to the entrepreneurial ecosystem make him ideally suited to advance Genesis's mission."

DependBuild in TechStars

Dependbuild, the St. John's maker of cloud software that helps municipalities and infrastructure developers assess risks to construction projects, has been accepted into TechStars accelerator in Ohio State University in Columbus.

The accelerator for nascent companies offers a three-month program, USD$120,000, mentoring and access to an extensive network.

Dependbuild Chief Operating Officer Jean-Samuel Poirier told Entrevestor the $120,000 has extended the company's runway, although the team is still preparing to raise an undisclosed sum that will allow them to commit to R&D and add sales and marketing employees and a software developer to their three full-time, and one part-time staff.

The company, which was founded in the spring of 2021, is talking to VCs in the U.S. who are familiar with government-tech, which Poirier describes as a historically difficult area in which to raise money.

“Gov-tech requires relationship building, which takes time and has not been as VC-backable as some other industries,” he said. “But we are seeing a shift. There is more excitement in the VC community around gov-tech right now.”

Poirier said Dependbuild offers clients modernity and comprehensive ease of use.

“Municipalities and their staff are over-burdened and under-resourced and need assistance to ensure they are not overlooking large risks to project delivery," he said.

“Our platform is seeking to replicate the role that a consultant would play, taking in the context of the municipality, their projects, and associated project risks, and providing insights and recommendations to help ensure the project is successful, minimizing the number of change orders and oversights that lead to cost overruns, schedule delays and/or reduced scope that public projects often face.” 

Poirier said that “Techstars is playing an invaluable component in our go-to market efforts…We just completed "Mentor Madness" through the program, where we met with 40 or so founders, investors, product experts and more in what resembled a week of mentor speed-dating.

“This level of access is hard to come across in Atlantic Canada, and poses a huge opportunity for any East Coast startup to get the same level of access and/or opportunity that you would get in, say, Silicon Valley or NYC.” 

The company was also recently chosen by the city of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to join its living lab program to improve management of its infrastructure projects.

Poirier said that as well as planning fundraising, the company is working on a product release, coming in the next few weeks.

“We'll be launching a larger product release that will take this further and help municipalities save time in their day-to-day operations,” he said.

The Future of Innovation Event Set for Friday

The University of New Brunswick's 2024 Future of Innovation Conference in Fredericton will focus on solutions for problems that are persistent throughout Canada and the world.

The annual conference, hosted by the university's J Herbert Smith Centre for Technology, Management and Entrepreneurship, takes place this Friday, October 11, at UNB’s Wu Centre from 8:30am to 5:00pm. Each session will focus on “the futures of…” in different areas.

This year, there are two keynote speakers. Ramila Khafaji Zadeh will look at Futures Literacy, or the human capacity to imagine the future. Khafaji Zadeh, a trainer and designer in Futures Literacy Learning Processes at Hanze University of Applied Science in the Netherlands, leads projects for governments, industries, higher education institutions, the United Nations, and NGOs. 

Eddy Campbell will look at Change, Leadership and Inspiration. Campbell, a mathematician and former president of UNB among other academic distinctions, specializes in the invariant theory of finite groups; a branch of abstract algebra.

The afternoon will see panel discussions and a fireside chat.

Attendance is free. If you would like to attend, register here.

How Dash Hudson Scaled to 220 People

J.P. Furey, left, interviews Jill Hennigar and Tomek Niewiarowski at Entrevestor Live.

J.P. Furey, left, interviews Jill Hennigar and Tomek Niewiarowski at Entrevestor Live.

It was a willingness to pivot based on market feedback that helped propel Halifax-based Dash Hudson to an enterprise employing 220 people, but it may have been a resolute focus on human resources that made the business sustainable.

Audiences at Entrevestor Live last month heard from Co-Founder Tomek Niewiarowski and Vice-President of Operations Jill Hennigar that while Dash Hudson was founded in 2013, the company did not arrive at its current business model until 2016, when it started providing analytics services to brands that sell through Instagram. The Dash Hudson panel was sponsored by Grant Thornton and moderated by the firm's Halifax-based partner J.P. Furey, who is also a former startup CEO. 

Moving to the business-to-business sales model would prove key to Dash Hudson’s growth and surge in revenues, Niewiarowski said, because it allowed the team to pursue much more valuable contracts than the monthly subscriptions commonplace with consumer-facing apps.

“At the beginning, it’s very hard to manage burn rate and stay afloat,” recalled Niewiarowski. “It was very eye-opening when you can sign a $50,000 deal, and it gives you a few months of runway, versus chasing a thousand $50 bills. That was a hugely eye-opening moment, when we switched to B2B.”

Niewiarowski and CEO Thomas Rankin originally conceived of their company as an analytics platform called Pathmata for large retailers. The duo would go on to pivot several times in just a handful of years, with products that ranged from a menswear app to a marketplace where brands could hire influencers. The company last raised capital in 2018. 

Niewiarowski recalled that, before the pandemic, the Dash Hudson sales people were mostly on airplanes non-stop. “Our development is driven by customer need," he said. "We do a lot of interviews and custom work for enterprise customers. As long as the contract size is right, we can be very flexible in what we provide.”

It was the buzz Dash Hudson generated within the East Coast startup ecosystem with that sales strategy that drew Hennigar to the company, she recalled. Her husband Trevor Hennigar is a co-founder of marine electrification startup Bluegrid, and in 2019, he returned from a conference at which he had heard Niewiarowski speak.

“He came home from the conference after hearing Tomek speak, and he said very confidently, ‘You’re going to work at Dash Hudson one day. … You really like fast-changing environments, I think they’re going to need a skillset like yours one day.’”

She initially dismissed the prospect of joining Dash Hudson because she had built her career at large corporates. It was advice from a friend who needed practice career-coaching to receive her license that encouraged Hennigar to try out a smaller organization, with one of Dash Hudson’s investors subsequently helping to recruit her.

When she joined the company, it had about 60 employees. Now, it has roughly 220. For veteran HR exec Hennigar, that meant the business’s internal culture and management processes needed to be carefully planned for scaleability.

“We hire a lot, and it’s not an administrative function,” she recalled. “Tomas is still heavily involved. He’s always on (Atlantic Canadian-owned job search site) CareerBeacon. … HR isn’t even involved in our true hiring process. We set the processes and enable the teams to do it, but the managers are responsible for building their teams, and so we really empower them to do that.”

Much of what has made Dash Hudson’s culture well-suited for scaleability Hennigar added, is her own and the company’s focus on creating structured, repeatable processes and finding ways to measure outcomes.

“You have to measure the culture, which is not always intuitive,” she advised attendees. “We survey our team twice a year,and this allows us to keep an eye on some really key points that are critical to our success. … Ninety-five percent of our team feels respected at work, 88 percent feel a sense of belonging, and 92 percent trust their manager. Those things are foundational before you think about other parts of the company.”

Sparrow Closes $10M Funding Tranche

Sparrow Bioacoustics CEO Mark Opauzsky

Sparrow Bioacoustics CEO Mark Opauzsky

Having just closed $10 million in funding, Sparrow BioAcoustics is setting its sights on building the world’s biggest databank of cardiological recordings, and helping doctors and patients understand how that can help them.

Last week, the five-year-old St. John’s medtech company announced it had closed a $13 million seed round, led by Killick Capital, Klister Credit and Pelorus Ventures. In an interview, Sparrow CEO Mark Opauszky said the company raised $3 million from these investors a few years ago, and they have invested again, now that the company has cleared several milestones. They have formed the lion’s share of a $10 million investment tranche, with the rest coming from a few family offices.

“It’s hard to celebrate funding,” said Opauszky, who became the company’s CEO in 2021. “It’s the work that’s the important thing. For us, [the funding is] great, but only because it allows us to continue to do the work.”

Continuing to do the work, he added, will involve further developing the company’s unique databank, and working to generate “market acceptance” for the Sparrow BioAcoustic technology.

The company’s main product is a smartphone app called Stethophone. It uses a combination of a device’s microphone and software processing to help medical practitioners and their patients monitor heartbeats with the help of a cellphone. It promises to offer patients a way to self-monitor and document their symptoms in detail, for later analysis by a physician. In June, Sparrow added AI features to identify common rhythmic and structural cardiac anomalies.

Stethophone won Food and Drug Administration approval in 2023 so it could be used by medical professionals in the United States. Sparrow said it was “the first-ever FDA-cleared smartphone stethoscope Software-as-a-Medical-Device.”

Legions of people have used the product, which means Sparrow has built up a databank of recordings of full “cardiac cycles” – a complete heartbeat from the beginning of one beat to the beginning of the next. The company will now build AI models that can detect tiny variations in sound that could indicate dozens of diseases, even at early stages.

"In the last 100 days, normal everyday people successfully made 30,000 medical-grade heart recordings" said Chief Product Officer Nadia Ivanova in a statement. "People use the system with a 96% success rate on their first try."

Added Opauszky: “We now have millions and millions of cardiac cycles . . . pulled from tens of thousands of pathological recordings and hundreds of thousands of recordings from [people without cardiac conditions].  . . . To build that database further and test it for accuracy is a deep endeavor. We have every indication it’s going very well.”

The regulatory aspects of this “deep endeavor” are fascinating, in part because gaining regulatory clearance for AI software that analyses a databank of cardiac recordings is uncharted territory. No one’s done it before, and regulatory approval will be needed in every country where the technology is used. Sparrow will have to establish the biological science, the AI-related science and ensure proper cybersecurity so the database isn’t corrupted.

The other priority for the recent funding is to gain “market acceptance”, said the CEO, because the company must make professionals and patients alike understand how this technology can improve healthcare.

“We have a big job ahead of us to get the public using the software but also gaining institutional acceptance as well,” he said. “You can’t have one without the other.”

The latest Sparrow BioAcoustic funding tranche is notable because it’s extremely rare for startups to close eight-figure funding rounds drawn largely from local funding sources. Killick Capital President Mark Dobbin said in an interview it’s the first time Killick has led such a large round for a tech company, though some of his aerospace investments have been larger.

Killick Capital, which is the family office for the Dobbin family of St. John’s, now has a portfolio of 20 companies, all but three of which are in Atlantic Canada. In the past two years, it has participated in mega-rounds by CoLab Software, Spellbook and Mysa (which was announced on Wednesday) as well as smaller rounds by QuickFacts and Swiftsure Innovations.  

“They’re all special,” he said of the companies in his portfolio. “But we see this one as having an opportunity to make a meaningful difference in the lives of millions of people. It is really democratizing a segment of the healthcare sector. . . . There’s such a significant portion of the world’ s population who are walking around every day with undiagnosed heart conditions and we can help them.”

Mysa Investors Return with $11M

Mysa CEO Joshua Green

Mysa CEO Joshua Green

St. John’s-based Mysa has closed an $11 million round of funding, which is a continuation of the $20.3 million Series B round it announced in 2021.

The investors in the continuation round are all returning from the previous funding round: Climate Innovation Capital (CIimateIC), Cycle Capital, Bruce Croxon’s Round 13 Capital, Business Development Bank of Canada, and Killick Capital. The original round was led by Montreal-based Cycle Capital, though Toronto-based ClimateIC was the lead investor in the most recent tranche.

Mysa specializes in manufacturing smart controls for HVAC, which stands for heating, ventilation and air conditioning.  The company said in a statement the funding will support the continued development and scaling of software and hardware products that are proving “foundational to energy transition and the decarbonization of home heating and overall utility grid decarbonization.”

The company’s collection of connected devices manages over 700 megawatts of HVAC load across North America and is helping utilities to reduce grid strain during peak demand times, it said.

“Mysa is at its most exciting point in our eight-year growth journey, with an intense focus on expanding our range of leading-edge software platforms designed to help our residential and commercial customers, as well as our rapidly growing roster of utility partners,” said Mysa Co-Founder and CEO Josh Green. He added that “the continued support from existing investors  . . . highlights their strong belief in, and commitment to, the important work our team is doing.”

The funding round in 2021 resulted in a number of major announcements in 2023. It began with the acquisition of the intellectual property of Costa Mesa, Calif.-based Zen Ecosystems, with plans to incorporate the smaller company’s offerings into Mysa’s product line in an effort to land commercial clients. Mysa also entered the European Union and launched Mysa LITE, a thermostat for electric baseboard heaters.

“Mysa is at the forefront of a massive shift in energy management that requires many puzzle pieces to align effectively and efficiently,” said ClimateIC Co-Founder and Managing Partner Kevin Kisma. “Mysa’s software stack and hardware platform are major contributors to the realization of this new energy ecosystem, as we look to accelerate the road to a fully decarbonized grid.”

Leach Celebrates New Award and Older Workers

Mary Kilfoil

Mary Kilfoil

As he mourns his late wife, educator Mary Kilfoil, Ed Leach focuses on their joint commitment to boosting entrepreneurship and employment among older workers. It’s an issue of fairness, but Leach stresses that prolonged working is also better for the individual and the nation.

“Employing older adults can have a positive impact on the economy, particularly in boosting GDP,” Leach told Entrevestor, adding that in Nova Scotia, people over 65 represent the fastest growing sector of the labour force.  

“By boosting labour force participation among older workers, governments can reduce unemployment, boost tax revenue, enhance productivity, and reduce pressure on social security and pension systems.”  

Older workers are said to be more loyal, good with clients, and keen to contribute and make extra money. But ageism is real: in an Age Friendly survey, 70 percent of workers aged over 50 said that younger workers receive preferential treatment from employers.

Leach (along with Kilfoil before her death in 2023), John Hamblin, and David Upton have been helping Canadian companies become certified age-friendly employers through a partnership with Boston’s Age Friendly Institute. Leach and the team will present the  Healthcare Workforce Leadership Award to SE Health at the upcoming Optimize conference held by Aging 2.0 in Louisville Kentucky.

“As we age, it’s important to have something in our lives that makes a difference to others,” said Leach. “It helps you live a longer and healthier life.”

Making a difference is something Mary Kilfoil understood and lived, and her commitment is being honoured with the Mary A. Kilfoil Award for Outstanding Contributions to Advancing Innovation in Entrepreneurship Education.

The inaugural award is is being  presented on November 7th at the annual conference of CCSBE (Canadian Council for Small Business and Entrepreneurship) at the University of Calgary.   Kilfoil and Leach taught entrepreneurship and served as executive directors at the Norman Newman Centre for Entrepreneurship at Dalhousie University.  Kilfoil was known to tell students to “Get out of the building,” to test their business propositions in the real world.

Kilfoil led the work in recruiting and certifying 22 TIANS (Tourism Industry Association of Nova Scotia) members as Certified Age Friendly Employers. She saw the growing population of older adults “as an opportunity rather than a challenge. We need to focus on wellness not illness...We have been presented with a unique opportunity where there is a labour shortage, financial insecurity for many and a desire to find purpose in their lives leading to more Nova Scotians ageing in place and fewer entering long-term care. Let’s do this!”     

Leach believes “ageing is a natural process for all of us yet as humans one that we attempt to ignore."

He believes it is never too soon to start the conversation. “Even children in Grade Primary should discuss ageing” he said. “Kids need to learn about self-care and life cycles. It’s not as much fun, but it’s just as important as sex education.”

Best of Luck, Avery Mullen

Avery Mullen

Avery Mullen

We regret to say that Avery Mullen, who has served as our reporter for several years, is no longer with Entrevestor full-time.

We’re subject to the same economic realities as the rest of the news business, and unfortunately we had to give Avery notice earlier this year. It was a tough decision, given their intelligence, dedication and molecular knowledge of the startup community.

We first met Avery in 2018, when they were a sophomore at the University of King’s College Journalism School. With a keen interest in business journalism, they joined us full-time in May 2021 and have been responsible for our news coverage ever since.

Reporting for Entrevestor isn’t easy. We have high standards of written English, and our reporters must have a solid understanding of business, especially the startup business. They have to be able to explain technology in ways that readers understand. Avery shone at all of these skills as a university student and continued to grow in the ensuing years.  

Since we first met, Avery has been published in several publications, including the Globe and Mail, the Financial Post, the Chronicle-Herald, Callaway Climate Insights of San Francisco, and the Macdonald Notebook.

As well as their superb reporting, we’re going to miss Avery’s cheerful presence. They are a joy to work with and always eager to take on an assignment. 

Avery plans to pursue an MBA next year, aiming for a career in venture capital. They will continue in journalism and commercial writing, and will write occasional articles for Entrevestor.

Carol will now become our primary reporter. We will continue, of course, to produce the Atlantic Canada Startup Data report.

We wish Avery luck with their future endeavors and look forward to publishing their work from time to time.

Wellnify Signs 61-School Pilot Agreement

Travis McDonough, left, poses with Co-Founder Robert Smith on a football field.

Travis McDonough, left, poses with Co-Founder Robert Smith on a football field.

Two weeks after it won entry to a high-profile American accelerator, Halifax-based Wellnify has announced a partnership agreement with another Nova Scotia company, outdoor gym equipment-maker Outdoor-Fit Exercise Systems.

Under the deal, 61 schools in Milwaukee where Outdoor-Fit has already installed its exercise equipment will have access to Wellnify’s app, which aims to use gamification and community features to encourage people to exercise. For example, users join fitness challenges that encourage them to compete to exercise more. The app is typically sold as a white label product.

The news comes close on the heels of Wellnify being accepted into the sports cohort of internationally noted startup accelerator Techstars in Indianapolis, Indiana.

“By merging (Outdoor-Fit’s) cutting-edge Outdoor Gyms with our Community Wellness Digital Ecosystem, we aim to inspire a fresh wave of fitness enthusiasts and foster a lasting commitment to healthy habits and behaviours among students in their region,” said Wellnify CEO Travis McDonough in a statement.

McDonough, a serial entrepreneur, previously founded Kinduct, which developed what it billed as the world's largest collection of sports data for athletes, coaches, trainers and medicine professionals. Launched in 2010, Kinduct eventually grew to have more than 500 clients from around the world, including professional and national sports organizations, before being acquired in 2020.

McDonough went on to found Wellnify in 2022, and according to LinkedIn data, the company now employs just shy of 20 people. The Techstars program will last three months, with a demo day in December.

Aurea Pre-Sells $405K of Revised Product

Two weeks after Dartmouth-based Aurea Technologies opened its Kickstarter campaign for the next generation of its portable wind turbines, the company has raised over 13 times its goal, as CEO Cat Adalay eyes deliveries in January or February.

The campaign to fund production of the Shine 2.0 originally had a target of $30,000, but Aurea actually received $405,000 worth of pre-orders for 600 units. And in an interview Thursday, Adalay said that was accomplished with limited preparation time.

“We saw a really great reaction to the original product, but what we were continuously hearing from our first round of customers was how they wanted certain upgrades and changes made to the product,” said Adalay. “We had already started development on the Shine 2.0 product, but in terms of actually releasing it and making the decision to do this in September, the trigger wasn’t officially pulled until late June, early July, so we only had really two months to prepare for this.”

Aurea co-founders Adalay and Rachel Carr launched the original Shine turbine on Kickstarter in 2021. The device is small and light enough for easy transport, at about three pounds. It is capable of functioning in a wide range of weather conditions, anywhere from 0 to 40 degrees Celsius and with wind speeds of between 8 and 28 miles per hour. It incorporates a 12,000 mAh internal battery, which can be charged ahead of time.

The changes incorporated with Shine 2.0 include a USB-C charging port to comply with new European Union regulations, an app that can display real-time telemetry from the turbine via a bluetooth connection, such as its battery state and the estimated wind speed, and an increase in the power output to 50 watts from 40. The revised charging port can also transfer power about five times faster than the original Shine port.

“People also wanted different options for mounting (the turbine),” said Adalay. “The biggest one being they wanted to set it up taller from the ground, so it can overcome wind disruptions such as brush and trees. So we’ve developed a mount accessory that will enable a turbine to be put higher above the ground.”

Shine 2.0 will initially launch in Canada, the United States and Europe, the same as the original Shine turbine. Adalay said the retail channels needed to commercialize the Shine 2.0 are already in place, and the company will not need to increase staffing, instead transitioning existing employees to build the new design.

In total, Aurea has raised about $5 million of equity funding since its founding, not counting the Kickstarter pre-sales. Latecomers can still order a Shine 2.0 via late pledging on Kickstarter, Adalay added.

“This is the result of our team’s really hard work,” she said. “They only had two months to prepare, and the entire team got behind the sales and marketing aspects of it, or backfilling roles due to us having to pull team members to the campaign. This was a team win.”

 

Disclosure: Cat Adalay is the daughter of the founders and owners of Entrevestor. 

10 Companies Join Accelerate

Invest Nova Scotia has announced the 10 companies joining the latest cohort of its Accelerate startup program.

Now in its fourth year, Accelerate offers participating startups four months of business and technical training and $40,000 of funding. It is completely virtual and aimed at companies that have already established market opportunities for products based on science or engineering-related intellectual property, as well as having completed or nearly completed a proof of concept or prototype.

Here’s a look at the companies:

Aeon Blue

Lark Meadow, Deóis (Yoshi) Ua Cearnaigh

Sydney

Aeon blue is developing technology to use wind energy, seawater and captured carbon dioxide to produce a cost-efficient synthetic fuel.

BIBLIOnomics

Alex Liot

Halifax

BILIOnomics describes its mission as providing marketers with authorized, location-centric content from professionally authored and published books.

EcoMarine Technologies

Dan Ruegg, Lu Liu, Erin Dunnet

Halifax

EcoMarine is developing an autonomous, remote-operated vehicle to clean ships' hulls to achieve, among other things, regulatory compliance.

EmployNXT

Shubhra Singh, Purvasha Dewanjee and Rajat Budhiraja

Halifax

EmployNXT is using artificial intelligence and machine learning for job matching, skill prediction and video interview grading.

Floqer

Shivam Mahajan, Zak Ahmed

Halifax

Floqer sells software to automate sales processes.

ImmigrateAI

Max Medyk

Halifax

ImmigrateAI is working on technology that streamlines and improves the visa application process for new Canadians.

Karyotica Labs

Aaron Dublenko

Pictou, N.S.

Karyotica Labs is developing biostimulants to increase crop productivity and reduce production cost for farmers.

Marecomms

Ulaş Güntürkün

Halifax

Marecomms sells underwater mobile communication technology.

Mycaro

Katie McNeill

Kentville, N.S.

Mycaro is commercializing a sustainable protein with a neutral taste and pleasant texture.

Parados Cerebral Solutions

Pascal McCarthy

Halifax

Parados is movement intelligence software that turns any camera into a motion capture system.

KardioDiagnostix Eyes Clinical Study

Santokh Dhillon, left, Robert Chen, and Mohammed Shameer Iqbal

Santokh Dhillon, left, Robert Chen, and Mohammed Shameer Iqbal

KardioDiagnostix, the Halifax maker of AI for analyzing paediatric heart murmurs, has expanded its research and development efforts via an agreement with a clinic in Toronto after gathering data from about 400 patients in Nova Scotia.

In an interview this week, Co-Founders Dr. Robert Chen, Dr. Santokh Dhillon and Mohammed Shameer Iqbal, the CEO, said they hope to commence similar operations in the United States, Saudi Arabia and India by the end of this year.

The final regulatory hurdle KardioDiagnostix must clear to receive Health Canada approval is conducting a clinical study to prove the software is effective. With the right staffing, which the founders plan to fund with an in-progress, $2 million raise, Iqbal said the study will likely take about five months.

 “The sensitivity of our tool now is as good, maybe even better than a cardiologist,” said Chen. “Specificity is the same as a cardiologist. So basically, the tool gives access to a paediatric cardiologist to every primary care person.”

Iqbal said Canadian regulators are willing to accept some types of data from research conducted in the U.S., while American regulators have requirements that are in some ways stricter, such as in their requirements about the demographic makeup of studies. That, plus, the fact the data is being gathered in Canada, makes it possible that approval could come before the U.S. sign-off, but he hopes to commercialize in both countries at relatively the same time.

“For FDA, they won’t accept any assumptions of a platform being device agnostic, so you have to prove every device,” Chen said.

In practical terms, he added KardioDiagnostix can be used with essentially any digital stethoscope, since patterns in a patient’s heart sounds are more important than the frequencies themselves. All healthy hearts have similar sound signatures, Chen said, whereas hearts with structural problems all sound a little different. So the KardioDiagnostix AI need not be able to identify specific pathologies, only whether or not a child's heart sounds normal.

“The fundamentals of the platform should not care what device is attached, as long as … you have a relatively flat frequency response from about 50 hertz to about 1,000 hertz,” Chen said.

The KardioDiagnostix team now has seven full-time staff, or a headcount of 12 counting part-time employees. The company’s staff are on track to publish five peer-reviewed articles about their work this fall, which will contribute to their regulatory bid. In total, Chen said he hopes to go to market in about two years.

“I think we should be ready by next spring or summer in both jurisdictions, have the clinical study and have approval to sell,” said Iqbal. “But we want to add additional stethoscopes and fine-tune everything.”

The company also recently signed a partnership with another East Coast startup, St. John's-based Sparrow Bioacoustics. Sparrow's app, which is notable for being the lone United States Food and Drug Administartion-approved software capable of recording a patient's heart sounds with only a phone's built-in microphone, will be used by KardioDiagnostix's team for gathering data.

When KardioDiagnostix does go to market, Iqbal added, its business development strategy will be aimed heavily not at paediatricians, but at parents.

“It’s not the doctor that has the pain, it’s the parents,” he said. “If someone tells me, ‘Okay, your kid has a heart murmur. You’ve got to wait 13 months, or you right now can pay to have a diagnosis by the app,’ I would pay several hundred dollars.”

InnovateNB Awards Seek Nominees

The organizers of this year’s InnovateNB Awards are seeking nominations for people and companies.

Nominations are being sought for the InnovateNB awards that recognize individuals and companies that deserve to be celebrated for their contributions to the innovation economy.

This is the InnovateNB Awards’ third year succeeding the longstanding KIRA awards. The event is hosted jointly by a consortium of industry players that includes the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, the University of New Brunswick’s McKenna Institute and Propel, the virtual startup incubator.

Nominations will be open until Oct. 15, with the awards gala to be held Nov. 13 in Moncton. You can nominate someone here. The categories are as follows:

  • Emerging Innovator
  • Most Innovative Product or Service
  • Productivity Improvement by Adopting Technology
  • Public Sector Award for Innovation
  • Economic Impact Through Innovation
  • Most Innovative Startup
  • Diversity and Inclusion Champion
  • Innovation in Academia and Research
  • Innovator to Watch

Three BioPort Takeaways

When life sciences entrepreneurs and investors gathered at the Halifax Convention Centre for this year’s BioPort Atlantic conference, they received a day and a half of advice from senior players in the industry, including on managing risk, finding talent and doing business with healthcare organizations.

This year marked the 23rd BioPort conference, which is organized by industry group Life Sciences Nova Scotia. This time, its theme was “Powered by Possibilities,” which organizers described as a reference to the potential of life sciences on the East Coast, with the right collaboration across the sector.

Here’s a look at three of the key topics at BioPort this year:

Risk management in life sciences looks different.

The complexity and potential dangers of implementing new technology in healthcare systems can make decision-makers at those organizations more risk-averse than other fields of innovation. Often, companies must walk a fine line between managing risk and maintaining the viability of their businesses, particularly where manufacturing is involved. In healthcare more than any other field, though, institutional buyers must be risk averse.

Scott Doncaster is vice president of strategic projects at Charlottetown-based BioVectra, the contract drugmaker which owns Canada’s first operational mRNA vaccine manufacturing facility. In July, the company anounced it had reached a deal to be sold to Santa Clara, California’s Agilent Technologies for US$925 million.

Commenting on managing risk in manufacturing operations, particularly with regard to quality control issues, Doncaster said one sign of organizational maturity is often a company’s ability to accurately assess how serious a problem is and what level of intervention is needed.

“If there’s something that’s happened, or there’s an issue, and your sales team is banging on your door, you’ve got to do your root cause analysis to fully understand whether there actually is an issue, or whether the quality team are on board and you can still manage to get the product out the door,” advised Doncaster.

If a company does find itself unable to fulfill the production agreements, particularly in the case of contract pharmaceuticals manufacturers like BioVectra, Doncaster and Takaya Technology Co-Founder Erin KacKean both warned the business needs to have its own alternate production options to fulfill the order. That could, for example, entail an agreement to borrow manufacturing capacity from a third party.

And conversely, because the healthcare industry in many jurisdictions tends to be centralized around bodies like health authorities, it can be especially important for life sciences companies to diversify their client portfolios. Otherwise, several speakers warned, a business must ensure its contracts are ironclad.

Working successfully with government or other large clients requires seeing healthcare from their perspective.

A recent shift in the landscape for life sciences businesses looking to achieve the difficult feat of securing a foothold in the healthcare market has been the emergence of “innovation hubs” that partner with private sector partners to commercialize innovative medical technologies, Virtual Hallway CEO Justin Hartley said. The Nova Scotia Health Authority, for example, operates an innovation hub based out of the same tower block as this year’s BioPort conference, which Hartley described as a leader in the space.

These innovation hubs can work with companies on clinical trials or tests and co-ordinate with their respective health authorities and other buyers to facilitate purchase deals. But the competition for limited amounts of government resources can be fierce. So, Hartlen said, companies pursuing such opportunities must take care to see their value proposition and potential pitfalls from the perspective of institutional buyers.

Nova Scotia Health Senior Director for Innovation Margaret Palmeter added,“Often the venture really understands the end user and how they’re going to interact with the solution. What are often not well-contemplated are the system impacts. There are so many dependencies when you are deploying something within a healthcare system that can touch data, can touch our patients, can touch the system providers.”

Seeing the situation from a procurement boss’s perspective, though, does not mean a company should not be assertive in pursuing the deals it seeks.

“We have a policy that we should be getting our wrists slapped lightly about once a quarter, because you have to push so hard to get any deal over the line,” said Hartlen. “But if you find you’re getting your wrists slapped a little too hard, a little too often, you’re probably doing a lot of damage.

“You can’t go over people. You can’t go around people. You’ve got to do everything respectfully.”

Startups must be willing to pay for expertise, but competing on salary is not always a winning plan.

Amid a global talent shortage that is likely to get worse before it gets better, any life sciences startup must be willing to pay top dollar for the talent it needs, the audience heard from a panel that included representatives from Nova Scotia Health, industry group BioTalent Canada and St. John’s-based startup PolyUnity, which specializes in 3D printing medical equipment.

Life sciences companies in Atlantic Canada are competing for talent with the added disadvantage of relatively inhospitable macroeconomic conditions both in the region and nationally, PolyUnity President Mark Gillingham said. The cost of housing, for example, is still lower than Toronto or Vancouver, but not as attractive as it once was. And for parents, finding childcare can be no simple task.

Competing jurisdictions like Ireland, meanwhile, have sweetened the pot for talent via levers such as tax advantages.

“We have this really paradoxical dichotomy of what’s happening,” said Gillingham. “There’s all these positions that we need to fill, and yet youth are struggling to actually get into these new positions. The trends need to change.”

For many companies, particularly startups with lean budgets, one option can be hiring consultants, Nova Scotia Health’s Annette Elliott Rose said. But vetting those same consultants to ensure they are qualified is a crucial step, particularly if they are working in a field other staff are not knowledgeable about, she warned. One way to manage that risk, Rose suggested, is to seek referrals from trusted associates or ecosystem organizations like incubators.

“Know the experts that you need around the table, whether that’s advisors, or team members, or consultants,” said Takaya Co-Founder MacKean. “And if you have to pay them, then find the money somewhere to get people who know what they’re talking about.”

Myomar Launches Product

Rafaela Andrade, centre left, with the Myomar Molecular team.

Rafaela Andrade, centre left, with the Myomar Molecular team.

Three months after it won Health Canada approval for its urine test to monitor muscle health, Halifax-based Myomar Molecular is going to market in Nova Scotia, with a national launch and capital raise to follow.

In an interview Thursday, CEO Rafaela Andrade said the company has so far signed on with 20 distribution partners in Nova Scotia. The raise will go towards funding the national expansion and follows a smaller, $1.1 million deal from earlier this year.

Myomar is also in the process of releasing its web app, which has portals for distribution partners and patients.

“We are already getting a lot of traction from other provinces to buy our test, so we need to raise the round to be able to complete the expansion plan,” said Andrade.

In Nova Scotia, the test will be available beginning October 7. Later, the national launch will include a version of the web software revised to include feedback from the Nova Scotia physiotherapy clinics, dieticians, naturopaths and other specialist treatment centres.

“After we go to market with those 20 clinics, then we want to improve our MVP and get feedback from them about what they would like to see better in the software,” Andrade said.

Myomar currently has seven employees, with some of the funding raise earmarked to hire another three staff on the sales and marketing team, as well as for logistical costs related to the coming scale-up. The national expansion will also benefit from Myomar’s new Toronto office on Dundas Street.

Myomar manufactures its tests in-house in Halifax, and at first, the company will collect urine samples from its Nova Scotia partners itself. Outside the province, Andrade said Myomar will work with logistics partners.

It takes “about a week, not more than two” for a patient to receive their test results, with an at-home test also on Myomar’s product roadmap.

Myomar’s earlier funding round, meanwhile, included a mix of equity and non-dilutive funding and was led by a Nova Scotia angel investor, with the Atlantic Canadian and Ontario divisions of the Women’s Equity Lab angel network also participating.

With the Health Canada approval now in-hand, Andrade also expects a nod from American regulators in fairly short order, since much of the required work has already been done.

“A lot of the regulatory approval is based on quality management systems, which we have established because of this first application to Health Canada,” she said. “We are working with consultants to speed up that (U.S.) process, and we think it’s going to be doable within six to eight months.”

Tracktile Wins Gerry Pond Award

Jordan Rose, left, and Jarred Kennedy

Jordan Rose, left, and Jarred Kennedy

Charlottetown-based Tracktile, which sells software for food and beverage manufacturers, has won this year's Gerry Pond Sales Award.

The Gerry Pond Award is an annual $25,000 cash prize awarded by virtual startup incubator Propel in honour of former NBTel CEO and Aliant Telecom President Gerry Pond, who went on to co-found Saint John-based Mariner Partners and Propel itself. Pond is a ferocious champion of sales strategies, so the award in his honour recognizes companies that devise and implement successful sales strategies.

“Tracktile has proven a clear path to sales and their focus on the customer is yielding strong results for them,” said Propel CEO Kathryn Lockhart in a statement. “Giving this award is a highlight of our year at Propel and we celebrate Gerry Pond’s vision of keeping founders focused on creating a repeatable and scalable sales process.”

Founded in 2019 by Chief Executive Jordan Rose and Chief Technology Officer Jarred Kennedy, Tracktile offers manufacturers a suite of tools for managing their operations, such as inventory tracking, traceability of ingredients and smart hardware. The company’s software can also help with data analysis and even automate documentation for some tasks.

In July, the company raised $575,000 from investors that included BDC Capital’s Seed Venture Fund, Island Capital Partners of P.E.I. and the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, with the money earmarked for product development and hiring. LinkedIn data indicates Tracktile currently has around 11 employees.

“Securing this funding is a huge step forward for us," said Rose at the time. "It means we can dive deeper into our mission of empowering manufacturers with the modern solutions they deserve. We're grateful for the trust our investors have shown and excited to bring our vision to life."

Previous winners of the Gerry Pond Award have included Halifax-based Side Door Access, St. John’s-based Oliver POS, and last year’s winner, Stemble of Charlottetown.

The other two finalists were:

Three Hippies

Charlottetown

Three Hippies is aiming to help the ticketing industry with fraud-proof tickets and better revenue for artists and promoters.

AIR Institutes

Halifax

AIR specializes in resilience training and mental health solutions with a comprehensive, evidence-based platform.

Eight Pitch at BioPort

When life sciences entrepreneurs and investors gathered in Halifax Wednesday for the first full day of this year’s BioPort conference, the agenda included two pitch sessions, one for pre-seed companies and one for seed-stage companies.

The pitches were moderated by George Kenney, a life sciences entrepreneur who co-founded Boston-based EntraTympanic.

The BioPort conference is now in its 23rd year, though this is the first over which Life Sciences Nova Scotia's recently appointed CEO Doris Grant has presided. The theme is “Powered by Possibilities,” which organizers describe as a reference to the potential of life sciences on the East Coast, with the right collaboration across the sector.

Here’s a look at the companies that pitched:

PRE-SEED

Bright Light Health

Dr. Alex Mitchell

Halifax

Brightlight sells AI tools for patient intake and management to enterprise clients in the healthcare space.

Elle MD Biotechnologies

Dr. Jennifer Johnston

Halifax

Elle MD plans to market a novel birth control device that does not rely on hormonal treatment, dubbed the Better Ring.

ResolveHD

Dr. Louis Beaubien

Halifax

ResolveHD has developed an AI system that uses natural language processing to read and clean up disorganized medical records.

7 Fathoms Seaweed

Courtney Howell

Grates Cove, N.L.

7 Fathoms makes seaweed-based cosmetic and skincare products, such as lotions, scalp treatments and clay masks.

 

SEED-STAGE

Amp Health

Mandy Woodland

St. John’s

Amp has developed an app that aims to use artificial intelligence and behavioural modification to help pre-diabetic people avoid becoming fully diabetic.

Granville Biomedical

Christine Goudie

St. John’s

Granville designs and prints three-dimensional, anatomically correct models of women’s pelvises for use as educational tools.

Kardio Diagnostix

Mohammed Shameer Iqbal

Halifax

Kardio Diagnostix is developing an artificial intelligence system to help doctors assess whether a cardiac murmur is caused by a heart defect.

Sound Blade

Dr. Jeremy Brown

Halifax

Sound Blade is developing a surgical technique to use sonic energy to cut tissue, which has applications including a surgery to treat sleep apnea.

“Ridiculously Ambitious”: Deeptech Shines at Entrevestor Live

Jennifer Wagner and Mike Kelland listen to Marc St-Onge at Entrevestor Live.

Jennifer Wagner and Mike Kelland listen to Marc St-Onge at Entrevestor Live.

A common theme emerged in many of the startups featured at this year’s Entrevestor Live conference Tuesday: their business models are “ridiculously ambitious,” to quote Planetary Technologies CEO Mike Kelland.

He was describing his own company as much as anyone else’s. Planetary is developing technology to combat ocean acidification on a mass scale, and is one of two companies at this year’s event to be in the running for an XPRIZE — a series of global, multi-year innovation competitions with prizes in the eight or nine figures.

Atlantic Canada’s strong showing in those competitions reflects a broader trend of the most promising companies in the region often focusing on large-scale, deeptech innovations, despite that model being traditionally viewed as a more challenging way to build a business.

“Doing something that’s ridiculously ambitious is sometimes easier than not,” said Kelland during our panel on XPRIZE finalists. “That sounds really counter-intuitive, but you don’t have a lot of competition. … Everybody thinks you’re a little bit crazy, but also, it's inspiring, and people will want to join your team.”

Our goal, when we host Entrevestor Live, is to highlight the Atlantic Canadian startups that have significant global sales and demonstrate how entrepreneurs can grow market-leading companies within the East Coast ecosystem. This year, the gathering was hosted by Ellen Farrell, a professor at Saint Mary’s University and a key architect of its entrepreneurship programming.

Planetary Chief Exec Kelland was joined onstage by Jennifer Wagner, who was previously the president of XPRIZE winner CarbonCure, as well as Marc St-Onge, whose SmallFood is currently a finalist. At Entrevestor Live, St-Onge was waiting to hear if SmallFood and its partner have been selected for the final three in their competition.

Planetary is among the top 20 finalists for the US$100 million Carbon Removal XPRIZE. SmallFood, which is developing algae-based food that mimics conventional protein sources like fish, is a finalist for the US$15 million XPRIZE: Feed the Next Billion. And CarbonCure, which uses carbon emissions to cure concrete, was the 2021 co-winner of an earlier Carbon XPRIZE, bagging US$7.5 million.

At Entrevestor Live, we also highlighted companies like marine electrification specialist BlueGrid and next-generation battery-maker Zen Electric, which grew out of research at Dalhousie University. Like the XPRIZE companies, these businesses are notable for their focus on commercializing bona fide scientific breakthroughs.

“I think that is the secret sauce, or the key differentiator for this community, is that you can really lean in on that notion of doing something ridiculously ambitious” said Iain Klugman, the pioneering figure who founded Canada’s premiere startup hub, Kitchener-Waterloo-based Communitech, at a time when there was little precedent for such a business north of the border.

“It’s not just about software, it’s not just about digital,” he added, describing himself as particularly impressed by the East Coast’s oceantech and cleantech activity. “There are so many areas of opportunity that I see people pushing on here in a big way.”

Here’s a look at all of Tuesday’s speakers and sessions:

Chair and Host: Dr. Ellen Farrell

Ellen Farrell is a professor of venture capital and entrepreneurship at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax. She is a national-award winning mentor and expert in VC, and an advocate for venture capital as a way for founders to grow scalable growth companies. She has overseen the university’s Master of Technology, Entrepreneurship and Innovation program and its cutting-edge programs in venture capital. Her company, InvestorQ&A,  is commercializing a new software product aimed at helping women founders perform better during question and answer sessions with investors.

 

Panel: Xprize Finalists (Moderated by Jennifer Wagner)

Jennifer Wagner

As a Fellow with Jeff Bezos- and Bill Gates-backed Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Jennifer Wagner has served as a fractional executive and advisor to more than a dozen early-stage climate tech startups in industries ranging from green chemicals to cement. The past President of CarbonCure currently works as a consultant with cleantech companies around the world. 

Marc St-Onge

Marc St-Onge is a serial entrepreneur who exited his first company, Ascenta, in 2015. He has since co-founded Aycoutay Technologies and founded Bend Beauty and Smallfood Inc. Smallfood and its partner Terra Bio of Toronto  are finalists for the Feed the Next Billion XPRIZE competition, which features a US$15 million prize pool.

Mike Kelland

A serial entrepreneur since the age of 12, Mike Kelland sold his software consultancy BoldRadius Solutions, to Lightbend in 2016. In 2019, he was the driving force behind the launch of Planetary Technologies, which aims to capture carbon and sequester it in the world’s oceans.  It is a finalist in the US$100 million Carbon Removal XPRIZE, for which it has already won a $1 million interim award.

A Fireside Chat with Rachael Craig (Moderatd by Dr. Ellen Farrell)

A former employee with Brilliant Labs, Rachael Craig left Halifax for the West Coast where she co-founded and was CEO of San Francisco-based MotionHall, which developed software that provided data to help biotech companies accelerate deals in drug discovery. Recently, London-based information provider Clarivate Plc bought the assets of MotionHall for an undisclosed sum.

A Fireside Chat with Erin Barrett (Moderated by Heather Libbey)

Heather Libbey

Heather Libbey, Vice-President of Strategy and Operations at the  New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, is a true champion of growth in New Brunswick, holding a number of senior economic development roles in her career. Last year, she moderated a discussion on Radian6 at Entrevestor Live and ww were delighted to welcome her back.

Erin Barrett

After establishing herself as a senior leader at the national telecom company Xplornet, Erin Barrett joined Eigen Innovations in 2018. After serving as VP Strategy and Chief Revenue Officer, she became CEO in 2022. She described her company’s success using AI to help some of the world’s largest manufacturers manage large amounts of data and identity the causes of quality control issues at factories via machine vision.

Panel: Novonix and the Battery Ecosystem (Moderated by Louise-Anne Comeau)

Louise-Anne Comeau

Louise-Anne Comeau is the Vice-President of New Energy Markets and Innovation at Emera. Before joining Emera in 2016, Louise-Anne ran her own company Comeau + Cie in London, England, and held senior positions with both multi-nationals and startups.

Novonix Battery Testing Services President Lori McLeod

Lori's entrepreneurial journey began at STI Technologies, a Halifax startup that exited in 2017. In 2022, she joined leading battery research company NOVONIX, which was spun out of Dr. Jeff Dahn's renowned lab at Dalhousie University. In August 2023, she became President.

Andrew Boswell

A serial entrepreneur, Andrew Boswell was a co-founder of Rimot, a startup aiming to help organizations monitor their remote infrastructure. After a pivot, the company is now known as BlueGrid and is producing software to help marine vessels take energy from and return energy to the grid, with Boswell as CEO.

Dr. Kriti Yadav

After a range of senior roles in India, the U.S. and Canada, Kriti joined Zen Energy last year as the Head of Strategy and Operations. In this role, she helps to guide current operations and shape the future at the company, which develops advanced batteries for light electric vehicles.

A Fireside Chat with Dash Hudson (Moderated by J.P. Furey)

J.P. Furey

J.P.  Furey has served as both CFO and CEO at leading startups, and is now a Halifax-based partner with Grant Thornton. He describes himself as a passionate business advisor, on a mission to help Nova Scotian businesses grow and succeed.

Tomek Niewiarowski 

After working on startups in his native Poland, Tomek Niewiarowski came to Dalhousie for a Masters in Computer Science. In Halifax, he teamed up with an Innovacorp venture capital executive, Thomas Rankin. Together they formed Dash Hudson, whose visual AI platform helps brands create visual assets for their marketing campaigns. 

Jill Hennigar

Skilled in investor relations, communications, talent management, governance and assurance, Jill Hennigar joined Dash Hudson after spending 11 years at Emera. She is now vice president of operations.

A Fireside Chat with Iain Klugman (Moderated by Peter Moreira)

Peter Moreira

Peter Moreira has spent more than 40 years in journalism in Asia, Europe and North America. His postings include London Bureau Chief for The Deal, European banking correspondent for Bloomberg, banking reporter for the South China Morning Post, and a stint at the Canadian Press's parliamentary bureau in Ottawa.

Iain Klugman

Iain Klugman founded and led Canada’s premiere startup hub, Communitech, in Kitchener-Waterloo. Having served as a board member and/or advisor to such groups as Volta and ACOA, he is intimately familiar with the East Coast startup community. Now the CEO of the NorthGuide consultancy, his decisive opinions are known for sparking lively discussion.

The Entrevestor team would like to thank yesterday's participants and audience for creating such an informative and community-building event.

Nine Startups Enter Propel Program

Propel, Atlantic Canada’s virtual tech accelerator, has named nine companies from across the region to its Fall 2024 Validation cohort, the first step of its programs for high-growth companies.

Validation focuses on validating the business idea with customers, using the lean startup methodology to find problem-solution fit. Generally, this course aims for companies that are making less than $1,000 in monthly revenue, or have no revenue at all yet.

“It’s always exciting to kick off a new cohort – and with this Validation group of founders, we see a broad range of companies,” said Propel CEO Kathryn Lockhart in a statement. “Our coaches look forward to setting them up for success in the customer journey.”

Through a series of cohorts throughout the year, Propel offers tailored programming and coaching for pre-revenue and revenue generating companies. The organization celebrated its 20th anniversary last year.

The participants of this cohort are:

Vifta Technology

Newfoundland and Labrador

James Greey

Vifta is an online marketplace to connect dog breeders and buyers while streamlining breeder administration activities. Ultimately, the company aims to make dog breeding more ethical, transparent, and accessible.

Gáamai Hair

New Brunswick

Aaliyah Lahai

Gáamai Hair is developing biodegradable hair extensions that offer a sustainable alternative to petroleum-based plastic extensions. It aims to address product shortcomings present in the synthetic hair market.

Performer’s Health

Prince Edward Island

Rich Knox

Performer's Health is helping touring musicians achieve a work-life balance. Through fitness and wellness coaching, both one-on-one and through a subscription-based platform, the company guides musicians to greater health and career satisfaction, and to peak performance.

Weevva

Newfoundland and Labrador

Matt Creese

Weevva is an all-in-one rental platform that simplifies the renting process for private landlords and tenants. It offers advanced tenant verification, matching, and comprehensive lease management to make renting easier for everyone.

Wicked Ideas Media

New Brunswick

Lisa Hrabluk

Wicked Ideas Media helps people create sustainable change via a methodology anchored in community journalism principles to solve complex issues.

HaulRadar Inc.

New Brunswick

Chris Carson

HaulRadar is an app that lets heavy construction companies monitor the productivity of their trucks, increase the amount of material hauled and save money.

Money Worx

Newfoundland and Labrador

Kosuke Toba

Money Worx offers a financial literacy course focusing on key concepts such as budgeting, banking basics, Canadian tax fundamentals, insurance, and future financial planning to empower individuals.

Kesseter Software

Nova Scotia

Johann Tienhaara

Kesseter helps project managers understand, predict and control software projects in real-time.

Infinite Tutoring

Newfoundland and Labrador

Deep Gajera

Infinite Tutoring is an online company based in St. John's. It aims to teach high school students lifelong skills through holistic techniques for university success.

Proposify Readies Version 3

Kyle Racki, centre, with some of the Proposify team at their first all-hands meeting since the pandemic

Kyle Racki, centre, with some of the Proposify team at their first all-hands meeting since the pandemic

Halifax’s Proposify made a profit last year for the first time since 2018, with CEO Kyle Racki and his team now in “build mode” with a suite of updated product offerings.

In an interview Friday, Racki said a new version of his company’s software, currently in beta and stylized as Proposify 3, represents a dramatic rework of the platform. Proposify also released a public API, or application programming interface, earlier this year, and is preparing to launch a tool for automating some tasks.

“We’ve been making a lot of investments in our product, and we want to realize the returns on that over the next 12 to 18 months,” said Racki. “We’re back in build mode right now in terms of the Proposify rebuild, getting customers adopting that.

“We feel confident that’s going to translate into revenue growth over the next year.”

The API allows companies to customize how their staff interact with the software and more easily integrate it with their existing technology stacks. The forthcoming automation tool will include its own graphical interface and allow users to instruct the software to perform specific actions based on pre-defined triggers.

The automated tasks can be performed within Proposify or with other software via the API. For example, a user might direct Proposify to generate a contract based on a template and notify signatories.

“Traditionally there would be no way to do that within our software,” said Racki. “We’d have to build that specific to their use case. Whereas this is more like a flexible builder where you can just create your own automation.”

Launched in 2013 by Racki and Co-Founder Kevin Springer, Proposify’s software simplifies the process of writing proposals in the cloud with online design templates that can be customized with text, images, videos and charts, as well as including document sharing and e-signing features.

At Entrevestor Live last year, Rickie and COO Kathy Doucette told the story of how they rightsized the company entering the pandemic, a move that laid the groundwork for last year’s profitability.

In 2021, Proposify raised $5 million, and by January of the following year, the company had more than 10,000 clients, employing about 110 people at its peak headcount. Today, Racki leads a team of 62 people, and while he does expect to do some hiring to support Proposify’s various new product rollouts, this time the business will be expanding at a more judicious rate.

Achieving real growth last year was also a more significant feat because Proposify’s revenue growth has weakened in the last couple years. The role of Proposify 3, if all goes according to plan, will be to help change that.

 “We’ve been relatively flat over the last couple of years,” said Racki, adding the business is stable enough to forego raising capital for the moment. “We’re making investments in product and growth to get where we need to be.

“It’s a good place to be in to not have to worry as much about runway and burn.”

Thank You, Entrevestor Live Sponsors

Entrevestor Live, the celebration of the best of Atlantic Canadian innovation, is only a day away and this is your last chance to buy tickets.

As we remind everyone there are only a few left, we’d like to thank our sponsors. This event would not be possible without the support of organizations like Invest Nova Scotia, which has been a stalwart supporter of Entrevestor since our beginning 13 years ago.

“We’re a team focused on growing Nova Scotia’s economy through direct interaction with businesses across the province,” said Invest Nova Scotia CEO Peter MacAskill. “We work with entrepreneurs and startups in every community so that they have access to the resources they need in order to grow.

“Entrevestor Live is the right platform partner to help enhance the understanding and promotion of companies in our ecosystem, which attracts potential investors and talent. To have an economy that is relevant in the coming decades, we get there by supporting and nurturing innovation and entrepreneurship today to help continually renew our economy.”

The three-hour event at Volta will shine a spotlight on some of the most exciting innovators ever to come out of Atlantic Canada.

As well as fireside chats with Dash Hudson of Halifax and Eigen Innovations of Fredericton, we'll feature Halifax-based XPRIZE finalists and take a look at the city's battery technology ecosystem. We'll hear from the founder of Communitech in Kitchener, Ont., and an Atlantic Canadian entrepreneur who launched, led and exited a San Francisco biotech company. 

The lunch hosted by Tribe will begin at about 1 pm, and the program begins at 2. Get your tickets before it’s too late.

Mike Cyr to Lead Charcoal

Mike Cyr, left, and Mike Hayes

Mike Cyr, left, and Mike Hayes

Newly minted Charcoal Marketing President Mike Cyr is stepping into the role in the wake of a significant transformation for both the company and its wider industry.

Cyr said in an interview this week that the world of marketing has, in recent years, experienced a sea change from projects with defined time horizons being typical to a paradigm in which organizations often keep marketing houses on retainer.

Previously Charcoal’s chief operating officer, Cyr is also now its sole owner, having gradually bought out former president Mike Hayes. For his part, Hayes will stay on as Charcoal’s chief marketing officer while devoting more of his time to the startup where he has been a vice president since 2021, IntegraSEE.

“We’ve been able to pivot the business together and make a lot of strategic moves,” said Cyr. “And shift the business away from project-based work to more of a fractional marketing model.”

When he said “fractional marketing,” Cyr was alluding to the widespread practice of small- and medium-sized businesses outsourcing some leadership roles and operations to contractors. In the world of startup finance, for example, fractional CFOs are quite common.

“We act as kind of their bolt-on marketing department,” Cyr said of Charcoal’s clients, which tend to be small- and medium-sized businesses with revenues of somewhere around $1 million to $5 million.

“So over the years I’ve been here, I’ve been able to help … shift our service offerings and help build the team to better mold that (type of) offering.”

Cyr, who has worked at Charcoal for just over six years, described working with Hayes as a rare learning experience. As Hayes’s successor, Cyr will lead a team of around five people, though that figure can vary if he brings in more people to work on a specific project.

Meanwhile, Hayes is also VP of strategy at IntegraSEE. The company’s roots are in “bio-sensor” technology that involved using small numbers of shellfish as an early-warning system for algae blooms and now incorporates artificial intelligence to perform data analysis. Cyr is likewise a collaborator on the project, as its head of marketing.

And to round out his work, Cyr is the owner and operator of Nanuk VR technologies, which lets prospective real estate buyers or financiers strap on a virtual reality headset and view a digital model of a property long before ground is broken. Cyr originally founded the company with Diogo Farinho and Jake Moore in 2018, before later buying them out.

“The banks, even when they’re loaning money to developers, they need to see what (a) project is, what this multi-unit development is going to look like,” said Cyr. “It’s almost expected. So we’re seeing the effects of that, and we’re able to capitalize.”

Map of NS Coastline Aims To Enhance Public Safety

Technology companies Stellar Futures of Blue Rocks, N.S. and Zimple Consulting SpA of Concepción, Chile, will work together to enhance coastal protection and public warning in emergencies. 

The first joint project will build a prototype digital triplet of Canadian rural coastal areas. (A digital triplet combines a physical object, a digital replica and real-time data.) The triplet provides targeted communication and alerts during environmental emergencies as well as day-to-day notifications, Gary Stairs, CEO and Founder of Stellar Futures, said in a statement.  

“The real-time 3D digital triplet will initially recreate 7,800 km² of the South Shore region of Nova Scotia with plans to scale and transfer the technology to other regions of Canada and Chile, both of which have extensive, ocean-endangered coastlines,” he said.

Currently in the early stages, the South Shore Digital Triplet project involves five specialized teams working across four countries. Stellar’s system focuses on impact exposures, ‘last mile’ imperatives, and the vulnerability of rural coastal communities.

"Canadians and Maritimers are coastal peoples, and being near the ocean contributes significantly to our quality of life…" said Stairs. However, we need to adapt as climate change increasingly impacts our communities.

“Together, these new partnership initiatives can deploy the latest technology to empower coastal Canadians and, potentially, Chileans.”

The new system will use geographic Information and mapping systems, AI, and machine learning forecast models specifically designed for coastal applications, including storms, flooding, and potentially wildfires.

Other partners include:

· Spatial One, a spinoff from the Applied Computing Innovation Centre at the University of New Brunswick;

· UNB Ocean Mapping Group;

· Centre of Geographic Sciences at Nova Scotia Community College;

· Amazon Web Services Canada (AWS);

· PREDICTif Solutions, Houston, Texas

· Virtual Internships in Johannesburg, South Africa.

SeafarerAI to Lead $964K Supercluster Project

SeafarerAI, a young Saint John-area company that uses artificial intelligence to improve port operations, will lead a project supported by Canada’s Ocean Supercluster to use AI in port dredging.

The Supercluster, a federal agency that partners with the private sector and academia to support Canada’s ocean economy, announced the $964,388 Port Watch AI Dredging Project on Thursday. It was one of three AI-related products the agency announced at once, with a total value of about $10 million.

Led by SeafarerAI, the project aims to improve dredging efficiency for ports using a new AI-enhanced cloud service. Combined with special geospatial software, the product will enable port operators to make better and faster decisions when dredging channels, allowing for a smoother process, said the Supercluster in a statement.

“This project will not only help stimulate growth in Canada’s ocean sector but will also support sustainable practices with a system that is anticipated to have high value in the global ports and waterways markets,” said Supercluster CEO Kendra MacDonald.

Led by CEO Ian Wilms, SeafarerAI was founded in 2023 to provide solutions for port security and environmental monitoring through the use of digital twins and AI. The company’s website says it aims to “harness the power of artificial intelligence to revolutionize port operations, mitigating environmental impact and enhancing security measures.”

The Supercluster will contribute $386,412 to the project, with the remainder coming from the project’s partners: SeafarerAI, Toronto-based Teledyne Geospatial, Halifax-based DeepSense, the University of New Brunswick, and Port Saint John.

The largest project announced by the Supercluster on Thursday was the $8 million AI ROV Ship Modeling and Detection Project, to be led by Deep Trekker, based in Kitchener, Ontario.

Using AI advanced technology, the project aims to improve ship hull inspections with remotely operated vehicles containing multiple cameras and sonars for precise, real-time data collection. Toronto-based Qii.AI has provided algorithms and software to analyze captured images to detect defects and other features. The Supercluster is contributing $3.4 million to the project

The Supercluster also announced the $1.6 million Generative Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning for Seafood Project, led by the seafood software company ThisFish of Vancouver.

ThisFish previously developed a smart manufacturing and supply chain platform called Tally, which enables seafood processors to automate production, quality control, traceability and inventory workflows. Building on Tally software, ThisFish added machine learning algorithms and a computer vision feature to enable automated, continuous quality inspection in seafood processing plants.

The new project, which will receive $661,500 from the Supercluster, will integrate generative AI to improve insights and analytics.

Sperri Closes Round Worth $4M+

Halifax-based Sperri, which makes plant-based meal replacements, has closed a fresh round of funding worth “millions” of dollars led by Nàdarra Ventures and supported by Invest Nova Scotia.

Sperri said it would use the money to support its expansion into the United States and drive new product innovation. The U.S. expansion has already begun as the product is now available on Amazon.com.

Nàdarra Ventures is the early-stage venture capital fund created by Charlottetown-based Natural Products Canada to invest in companies that use natural products. It is headed by Managing Partner Malcolm Fraser, the former CEO of Innovacorp, which was merged into Invest Nova Scotia two years ago.

The company statement said the round was worth “millions” and a source later narrowed it down to say the size was more than $4 million. Sperri – whose corporate name is Novagevity – last announced a funding round in September 2022, when it closed a seed round worth $2.5 million.

“This investment represents our focus on sustainable, natural product innovations that create industry leading returns, while generating measurable impacts on the health of our population and planet,” said Fraser in a statement. “We believe the combination of Novagevity’s experienced team with a track record of success; and recent policy changes designed to leverage nutrition to address major health issues in our population create a strategic market opportunity for the company’s continued success.”

Born out of the Sobey School of Business at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Sperri makes a brand of health drinks, which are available in supermarket chains across Canada and is used by such health authorities as Nova Scotia Health. It is Canada’s first organic and allergen-free plant-based meal replacement beverage and was founded on the principles of medical nutrition therapy, which uses specific nutrition plans to treat chronic conditions.

The company was co-founded by CEO Gregg Curwin and Dr. Mary Lynch, physician and pain management specialist. A serial entrepreneur, Curwin was the founder of indoor farming company Trueleaf Sustainable Agriculture, which has been taken over by McCain Foods and now does business as Good Leaf Farms. Curwin teamed up with Lynch in 2019 to found Novagevity. Lynch is an expert in pain management who had previously co-founded Panag Pharma, which exited for about $27 million in 2018.

In the statement, Lynch said many of her patients required meal replacements to access proper nutrition, but struggled to tolerate existing options due to high levels of processed sugars, dairy, gluten and soy protein.

“Our products are grounded in scientific research leading to effective medical nutrition, and the ethos of Sperri is to inspire change within our conventional healthcare systems,” said Curwin. “We are rooted in the belief that food is medicine, and that not only Nova Scotians, but everyone throughout North America, needs that more than ever. Sperri products are designed to be accessible, affordable, and effective, ultimately becoming a major benefit to Primary Care treatment, in a time of critical need to relieve pressure from our healthcare system.”

As well as joining the latest funding round, Invest Nova Scotia, the province’s business development agency, provides the company with export services and facilities like The Labs at Invest Nova Scotia, the life sciences hub where Novagevity operates.

“Novagevity’s plant-based, ready-to-drink meal replacement is designed by health experts to promote recovery and well-being using natural ingredients and is free from all major allergens,” said Jennifer Fuccillo, Investment Principal at Invest Nova Scotia. “Food innovation is key to public health, and Novagevity is leading the way.”

Grant Thornton To Host Dash Hudson Discussion

Grant Thornton JP Furey will lead the discussion

Grant Thornton JP Furey will lead the discussion

We're delighted to welcome Grant Thornton as a platinum sponsor of Entrevestor Live, and to announce that JP Furey, a partner in the firm's assurance practice, will lead a discussion with senior executives of Halifax IT company Dash Hudson. 
Grant Thornton told us they're sponsoring the event because they see the role innovation plays in driving growth not only in our region, but across Canada. 
Entrevestor Live, a showcase of the best of Atlantic Canadian innovation, will take place at Volta in Halifax on the afternoon of Sept. 17. Tickets are selling fast, and seats are limited, so register today.


"I had the pleasure of hosting a panel with Thomas Rankin, CEO of Dash Hudson in our office this time last year," said Furey. "This is not an easy market and with industry trends moving rapidly these conversations benefit us all. You will walk away with new insights — let's learn from one another, ask questions and maybe have a laugh."
Dash Hudson is a social media management platform that equips brands with intelligence and speed to stay ahead of the curve. With blue-chip clients like United Airlines and Harrod’s, it helps companies of all sizes optimize the ROI on their media spend.
Co-Founder and CTO Tomek Niewiarowski and Vice-President of Operations Jill Hennigar will discuss the company’s meteoric rise to becoming one of the world’s leading social media management companies.
They will be interviewed on stage by Furey, who in his previous roles has experienced the opportunities and challenges tied to accessing capital, managing an evolving financial strategy and competing to stay relevant in the market.


 

Profitual Launches Forecast Evaluator

Profitual, a financial intelligence startup that specializes in working with other young companies, is revamping its branding and has launched a new, free product. 

In an interview Tuesday, CEO Raymond Fitzpatrick said the Fredericton-based company has tweaked its business development strategy after completing this year’s AI cohort from accelerator NEXT Canada. Fitzpatrick was speaking from Montreal, where he was participating in the program’s demo day.

“We know we’re a brand new company,” he said. “Not a lot of brand recognition. When we would start talking to companies about why they should work with us and use our platform to build their financial forecasts, a lot of times they would say, ‘Well how do I know you guys are any good? How are you special?’

“What we’ve (just released), we’ve called the Forecast Evaluator. Any startup that has an Excel financial model, they can upload it to our website, and in about three minutes, you get an analysis back on where your financial model is strong, where there’s areas that need improvement.”

The free tool is aimed specifically at startups looking to raise pre-seed or seed funding rounds, and its feedback is tailored to help companies bring their financial models in line with the best practices that investors will expect. Profitual founder Fitzpatrick has expertise of his own on the topic, having worked as an executive at the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation.

Now, their team’s flagship product is an artificial intelligence system that probes small and medium-sized enterprises’ financial records to generate models, revenue projections and other calculations, with a particular eye towards helping young businesses raise capital.

If startups like what they see from the Forecast Evaluator, they can then reach out to Profitual to discuss more comprehensive paid tools, having already seen some of the company’s technology in action.

Fitzpatrick’s team has worked with over 100 startups across Canada since they founded Profitual in 2021. The largest proportion of those startups are in Atlantic Canada, but the company has clients in every province. In 2022, Profitual raised $1.2 million, with another funding round now in the works.

The money will go towards further building out Profitual’s suite of AI tools, as well as ramping up business development efforts in western Canada and possibly the U.S., Fitzpatrick said.

Underpinning those efforts will be the light rebranding that Profitual’s eight-person team recently executed, which involves the company retaining its name, but switching its web domain to “.ai”. The company has adopted a new logo with darker, bolder colours to replace the stylized illustration of a financial chart that the company had used since its launch.

“What we’re trying to do now is go a little bit deeper, especially from Toronto west, trying to strengthen our brand and build more roots,” Fitzpatrick said.

One Week Until Entrevestor Live

There's one week left to buy tickets for Entrevestor Live, our showcase for the best and the brightest of the Atlantic Canadian startup community 

The half-day conference, to be hosted by Saint Mary's University Professor Ellen Farrell, will take place Sept. 17 at Volta in Halifax. The program includes a lunch hosted by Tribe at 12:30, followed by six sessions with leading innovators. 

Entrevestor Live showcases the best and the brightest in the Atlantic Canadian startup and innovation community, highlighting the startups that have significant global sales and demonstrating how entrepreneurs can grow market-leading companies within the East Coast ecosystem. 

As well as spotlight sessions with Dash Hudson of Halifax and Eigen Innovations of Fredericton, we'll feature Halifax-based XPRIZE finalists and take a look at the city's battery technology ecosystem. We'll hear from the founder of Communitech, and an Atlantic Canadian entrepreneur who launched, led and exited a San Francisco biotech company. 

We're proud of the quality of program we staged in the first three years of Entrevestor Live. For 2024, please join us for our strongest event yet.

SMU Heading to Enactus World Cup

The Enactus Saint Mary's team: David Cambell, Jonzel Robichaud-Lorde Gabriel Martin, Olivia Sanderson and Rashid Khan.

The Enactus Saint Mary's team: David Cambell, Jonzel Robichaud-Lorde Gabriel Martin, Olivia Sanderson and Rashid Khan.

A team from Saint Mary’s University will travel to Kazakhstan in three weeks to compete in the World Cup finals of the Enactus student entrepreneurship competition, for which it has already won the Canadian division.

Founded in 1975 and based in New York, Enactus is a global network of charity and experiential learning programs for post-secondary students, with a particular focus on social entrepreneurship.

When the SMU team won the Enactus Canada competition for the first time last spring, they bested 49 other schools. At the World Cup in Kazakhstan’s capital of Astana, slated to be held from Oct. 1 to 4, there will be 33 other teams competing for the US$50,000 top prize.

The SMU competitors won the national competition with the help of two projects, dubbed Plastarch and Square Roots. Plastarch involves a biodegradable plastic packaging product for restaurants made from potato skins, while Square Roots is an initiative to reduce food waste by repurposing product discarded by stores or restaurants because of visual imperfections.

“Placing first at the Enactus Canada National Exposition for the first time in Saint Mary's history could not have been possible without the support from all the members and alumni who are part of the Enactus Canada Network, Saint Mary's University, and most of all, the community,” SMU organizers Susan MacInnis and Paige Bigelow said jointly at the time.

“As we prepare to represent Team Canada at the World Cup in October, we are honoured and excited to continue our impact, fuelled by collaboration and a shared commitment to positive change.”

Dependbuild Joins Myrtle Beach Living Lab

Dependbuild, the St. John's maker of cloud software to help municipalities and infrastructure developers assess risks to construction projects, is among four companies chosen by the city of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to join its new living lab program.

The announcement comes about six months after dependbuild’s beta launch. As part of Myrtle Beach’s smart city initiative, dependbuild will eventually have access to a physical living lab facility. But while that facility is being built, the company will be able to use the HTC Aspire Hub, another tech workspace.

In a statement, dependbuild said the partnership will involve working with the city to improve management of infrastructure projects.

"For a town of roughly 40,000 residents, Myrtle Beach sees 17 million visitors each year," said CEO Conor O'Brien in a statement. "This alone poses a lot of unique challenges when it comes to infrastructure management and urban development and makes Myrtle Beach the perfect partner for us. We couldn’t be more excited to be part of this program and work with such a forward thinking organization."

To be chosen for the living lab program, dependbuild beat out about 20 other applicants from multiple countries. Myrtle Beach's goal is to encourage technology companies to use it as a base of operations by offering office space and the possibility of testing new innovations in partnership with the municipality. Companies will be involved with the program for anywhere from three months to about a year.

Founded in the spring of 2021, dependbuild had already piloted its technology with several customers before it entered commercialization earlier this year. O’Brien and Chief Operating Officer Jean-Samuel Poirier are targeting municipal governments as their beachhead market, along with American county governments, with private developers to come later.

So far, their team has worked with cities of a range of sizes, including several large, U.S. urban centres. But the “sweet spot” for dependbuild’s technology to be maximally useful is likely to be centres of up to about 30,000 to 100,000 people, Poirier has said previously. 

Dependbuild was also last week accepted into the AI in Government accelerator from technology-focused United States non-profit CivStart. It operates under a partnership with the GovAI Coalition, which is a San Jose-based industry group, and the National League of Cities, which aims to bolster local governments in their dealings with U.S. federal leadership.

"Dependbuild’s platform empowers municipal staff, including town managers, engineers, and project managers, to assess, update, and report on project risks throughout the lifecycle of public infrastructure projects," the company said. "The platform’s ability to automate and streamline these processes aligns perfectly with the goals of the AI in Government Accelerator, making dependbuild a strong fit for this year’s cohort."

Gerry Pond Award to be Presented Next Week

Virtual startup incubator Propel ICT will present its annual Gerry Pond Sales Award in Moncton on Sept. 17, recognizing its program members that have excelled at selling their product. 

The Gerry Pond Award is an annual, $25,000 cash prize in honour of former NBTel CEO and Aliant Telecom President Gerry Pond, who went on to co-found Saint John-based Mariner Partners and Propel itself. Pond is a ferocious champion of sales strategies, so the award in his honour recognizes companies that devise and implement successful sales strategies. 

"This prestigious award, named after our co-founder Gerry Pond, recognizes a Traction and Growth company that excels in creating a repeatable and scalable sales process," said Propel in a social media statement.

The finalists this year are: 

Three Hippies

Charlottetown

Three Hippies is aiming to help the ticketing industry with fraud-proof tickets and better revenue for artists and promoters.

Tracktile

Charlottetown

Tracktile empowers small to medium-sized food and beverage manufacturers with cutting-edge, configurable software solutions.

AIR Institutes

Halifax

AIR specializes in resilience training and mental health solutions with a comprehensive, evidence-based platform.

BioPort to Feature VC Panel, Startup Pitches

This year’s BioPort Atlantic life sciences conference will include a venture capital panel discussion, as well as a pair of pitch sessions featuring pre-seed and seed-stage startups from the region.

When BioPort attendees gather at the Halifax Marriot September 19, the VC panel will feature investors from firms such as Vancouver-based Pender Ventures and Quebec specialist fund AmorChem.

The startup pitches, meanwhile, will be moderated by George Kenney, a life sciences entrepreneur who co-founded Boston-based EntraTympanic.

“Explore the evolving landscape of life science investments with a detailed analysis of trends since the peak year of 2021,” promises conference organizer Life Sciences Nova Scotia. “Gain a forward-looking perspective on investment strategies and the innovation potential within this dynamic industry."

Here’s a look at the pitching companies:

 

PRE-SEED

Bright Light Health

Halifax

Brightlight sells AI tools for patient intake and management to enterprise clients in the healthcare space.

Elle MD Biotechnologies

Halifax

Elle MD plans to market a novel birth control device that does not rely on hormonal treatment.

ResolveHD

Halifax

ResolveHD has developed an AI system that uses natural language processing to read and clean up disorganized medical records.

7 Fathoms Seaweed

Grates Cove, N.L.

7 Fathoms makes seaweed-based health products.

 

SEED-STAGE

Amp Health

St. John’s

Amp has developed an app that aims to use artificial intelligence and behavioural modification to help pre-diabetic people avoid becoming fully diabetic.

Granville Biomedical

St. John’s

Granville designs and prints three-dimensional, anatomically correct models of women’s pelvises for use as educational tools.

Kardio Diagnostix

Halifax

Kardio Diagnostix is developing an artificial intelligence system to help doctors assess whether a cardiac murmur is caused by a heart defect.

Sound Blade

Halifax

SoundBlade is developing a surgical technique to use sonic energy to cut tissue, which has applications including a surgery to treat sleep apnea.

UNB Announces Harvard Accelerator Partnership

The University of New Brunswick’s J. Herbert Smith Centre, the Fredericton university's entrepreneurship hub, has announced a partnership with Harvard University to bring the Ivy League institution’s prestigious public and planetary health accelerator to Canada.

Created by Harvard College's Lemann Program on Creativity and Entrepreneurship and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the HealthLab Accelerator, or H2A, program is aimed at teams of two or more people trying to solve public and planetary health challenges at a global scale. 

Participating in the program, the first Canadian cohort of which will run in 2025, will involve attending events, meeting with an assigned mentor, pitching to the accelerator’s board and participating in virtual workshops, among other program elements.

"We are thrilled to partner with Harvard HealthLab Accelerators to bring H2A Canada to life," said Dr. Dhirendra Shukla, chair at the J Herbert Smith Centre.. "This initiative embodies our commitment to nurturing the next generation of entrepreneurs who are not only driven by innovation but also by the desire to make a meaningful difference in the world. H2A Canada will provide our students with exceptional opportunities to develop their ventures while contributing to a healthier, more sustainable future.”

The program is open to teams of current students and postdocs from faculties across UNB, and at least one team member must be a student at the university. Priority will be given to multidisciplinary teams that bring together diverse perspectives to tackle global problems.

The organizers said the program will focus on building ventures that contribute to a healthier, more sustainable world, aligning with the United Nations sustainable development goals.

“Each team has access to mentors-at-large and is assigned a personal mentor,” say organizers. “In addition, each team gets networking opportunities with members of the H2A Venture Board and industry experts.”

You can learn more and apply here. The deadline is Sept. 30.

Kraken Announces Software Partnership

Kraken Robotics, the Newfoundland maker of marine robotics systems that has raised close to $38 million from public markets this year, has signed a major new product partnership.

The company, which specializes in next-generation sonar systems and unmanned platforms to carry them, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the U.K.-based SeaByte, a division of Battelle. Kraken will combine its data-gathering hardware with SeaByte’s analytics software to create an “integrated system” for maritime businesses to manage their operations.

Kraken, which was founded in 2012 as a spinoff from another company, has had a busy year. It has appointed a new chairman, Peter Hunter, and posted record revenue figures for several quarters in a row, driven largely by military contracts.

The stock, which trades on the TSX Venture Exchange, has slid over the past week and currently sits at about $1.47. But investors have still seen their money grow by 137 per cent year-to-date.

“Kraken provides turnkey minehunting solutions which collect high quality data and turn it into high quality seabed intelligence – our customers use this to inform high quality decisions,” said CEO Greg Reid in a statement. “Our sonar systems are used worldwide for critical decision-making.

“Having completed several integrations and customer demos with SeeByte, Kraken is excited to integrate with SeeByte’s advanced capabilities. This provides navies worldwide with the ability to seamlessly leverage SeeByte’s mission management tools to optimally plan, analyze and review Kraken’s high-resolution synthetic aperture sonar data.”

Volta Seeks Investment Day Applicants

Halifax startup hub Volta is looking for applicants to the fall edition of its Investment Day event, which it hosts in collaboration with accelerator Creative Destruction Lab Atlantic.

The event will be held at Volta’s new offices in downtown Halifax’s Armoyan Centre on November 12 and will give 12 seed-stage and Series A companies the chance to pitch to an audience of venture capitalists from outside Atlantic Canada.

Companies will deliver five- to seven-minute pitches, then decamp for one-on-one sessions with investors. To be eligible, startups must be headquartered in Atlantic Canada and be able to show traction, such as evidence of having validated their business models, as well as early adopter users or even paying customers. Applicants must also provide financial projections.

"Volta Investment Day epitomizes our commitment to supporting founders to access crucial capital and connecting investors with high-potential startups. We aim to showcase the incredible innovation happening within our region to investors both near and far," said Volta CEO Matt Cooper in a previous statement. "This exclusive event, now to be held semi-annually, serves as a beacon for Atlantic Canada's burgeoning entrepreneurial ecosystem."

You can learn more and apply here, though the deadline is September 11. You can also take a look at the companies that presented at the spring edition of Investment Day here.

Genesis Seeks Evolution Applicants

Genesis, the Newfoundland and Labrador entrepreneurship hub, is looking for applicants to the fall, 2024 cohort of its 10-week Evolution startup program.

Genesis bills Evolution as a “pre-incubator” course meant to prepare young companies for longer programs, such as its own, three-year Enterprise incubator. Evolution promises to help entrepreneurs clarify their businesses’ value propositions, find product-market fit and connect with mentors.

The accelerator includes sessions on topics like customer acquisition and revenue streams, among others. It culminates in a public pitch competition for the cohort’s standout performers, and covers topics such as assessing market size, customer acquisition strategies and developing revenue streams.

To be eligible for Evolution, companies have to be technology-focused, have already identified a pain point that their tech is meant to solve, have less that $1 million in annual revenue or be pre-revenue, and have not yet produced a minimum viable product.

Participation in Evolution costs $250. Entrepreneurs can learn more and apply here. The deadline is September 20.

Innovation Challenge To Be Held in Fredericton

In October, entrepreneurs, researchers and students will gather in Fredericton for the city’s Boost Ideation Camp, an innovation challenge aimed at finding solutions to problems related to population growth.

Backed by the University of New Brunswick and other partners, the event is aimed at applicants with some business or technical background, such as having worked as a project manager or software developer. It will be held over the three days of October 23, 25 and 27.

As examples of challenges competitors might tackle, organizers cite affordable housing, food security and energy poverty, among others.

“This year, participants will have the opportunity to bring their own idea forward, with the caveat of it being a tech-based solution that will have community impact regarding population growth,” says Boost. “For those seeking inspiration, Boost Fredericton will present a municipal problem to solve as well.”

Participation is free, and anyone who attends will receive a certificate they can show to their current or prospective employers.

You can learn more and apply here. The deadline is October 1.

We’re off till Sept. 3

We just want to let everyone know we're taking our annual late-summer holiday this week.

Usually we take off the last week of August, so we'll be back with fresh news on Atlantic Canadian startups on Sept. 3.

Meanwhile, we'll be at the beach with a good book. Happy Labour Day, everyone. 

Less than 4 Weeks Till Entrevestor Live

There are only three-and-a-half weeks left to register for Entrevestor Live, our annual event showcasing the best and the brightest in the Atlantic Canadian innovation community.

To be held Sept. 17 at Volta, this half-day conference highlights the Atlantic Canadian startups that have significant global sales and demonstrates how entrepreneurs can grow market-leading companies within the East Coast ecosystem.

This year, the gathering will be hosted by Ellen Farrell, a professor of venture capital and entrepreneurship at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax and a key architect of its entrepreneurship programming. She is a national-award winning mentor and expert in VC, and the founder of InvestorQ&A, software that helps female entrepreneurs prepare to pitch investors.

As well as spotlight sessions with Dash Hudson of Halifax and Eigen Innovations of Fredericton, we'll feature Halifax-based XPRIZE finalists and take a look at the city's battery technology ecosystem. We'll hear from the founder of Communitech, Iain Klugman, and have a chat with Rachael Criag, an Atlantic Canadian entrepreneur who launched, led and exited a San Francisco biotech company.

In-person tickets cost $80. The conference will be livestreamed online. Order yours today.

B-Line Launches AI Assistant

B-Line’s Logan Grooms, left, Aaron Short and Ian Serfaty

B-Line’s Logan Grooms, left, Aaron Short and Ian Serfaty

B-Line Technologies, the Halifax maker of smart building technology, has launched a new AI assistant product to act as a building management hub and help operators find information quickly.

In an interview at the company’s offices in Halifax’s historic Benjamin Wier House, CEO Aaron Short said B-Line is experiencing “exponential” revenue growth.

“A lot of the analytics that we were doing before could be accessed by a couple of administrators, and they would see all the data,” said Short. “But now, with the advent of gen-AI (generative AI), we’ve been able to layer information for different permissions.

“Administrators can see the data that they need to see. Staff can ask questions that they need to get answers to, so it reduces staff onboarding. And then you can have guests and visitors that use the application to get information that they need in a faster, more streamlined way.”

B-Line's flagship offering is an app that uses data about how building occupants interact with a space to find insights that help property managers and others run their buildings more efficiently and securely. The company’s technology can be tied to a building’s access control system, such as with its app that can operate keycard-controlled locks. And the software can access and analyze data from equipment like HVAC systems.

The platform uses bluetooth sensors spread throughout a building to triangulate a phone’s location, gathering data according to a stringent privacy policy. The AI assistant, meanwhile, is built on Chat-GPT, with specialized model tuning and data aggregated via B-Line’s own system.

The bluetooth sensors are only slightly larger than a stack of two or three loonies and have a battery life of about five years. B-Line typically collaborates with local access control companies to install its systems.

The technology can also be adapted to clients’ specific needs. For example, it can monitor how long, on average, it takes a housekeeper at a hotel to clean a room. Then, it can use that data, along with the location of the housekeeper, to predict when specific rooms will become available for guests. The Brookstreet Hotel in Ottawa has been doing just that, in fact.

“Front desk staff will say, ‘Hey, when is the room ready?’” explained Short. “Housekeepers will have the app on their phone and be using it to get in and out of the rooms. But also, we have sensors (at the room entrances). We don’t track individual housekeepers, but we can look at the aggregate data and say, ‘Okay, it’s taking 25 minutes to clean a room, and this person has been there for 15 minutes. Room 1016 will become available in the next 10 minutes.’”

B-Line, which now employs a team of eight people, has clients in Canada and the U.S., as well as a handful in more far-flung places like Australia and Scandinavia. Short’s team is also eyeing clients in the U.K.

After holding off on a capital raise until B-Line had the traction it needed to command a higher price from investors, Short is now in the midst of raising a round of seed funding. He said a significant portion of his hoped-for funds are already committed.

“We’ve held off for a long time because we wanted to raise at a valuation that was fairly high, because we’ve been in business for a long time,” he said. “But now we feel it’s the right time.”

Dragon Breath Wins Volta Pitch Competition

Dragon Breath, a marketplace created by CEO Darsh Sinha for video game players to trade gaming equipment and in-game valuables, took first prize at Halifax startup hub Volta’s latest Virtual Pitch Competition this week.

The event offered budding founders the chance to practice giving a three-minute pitch to a panel of judges. Winners were chosen based solely on the quality of their pitches, not the quality of their companies, with Dragon Breath taking home a $500 Visa gift card.

Participants were told to emphasize the unique elements of their product or business idea in their initial application, with their ideas’ technological elements being of particular importance.

“Thank you to all the startups who took the virtual stage,” said Volta in a social media statement. “Your passion and innovative ideas were truly appreciated.”

Here’s a look at the other startups that pitched:

Gigplus

GigPlus is a comprehensive mobile app for gig workers, such as drivers, to manage their finances.

OEEE

OEEE uses satellite imagery analysis and AI modeling for precise, real-time detection of oil spills.

Lime

Lime is “focused on revolutionizing customer feedback for businesses that truly care about their service quality.”

ReforestAI

ReforestAI uses drones and artificial intelligence to combat deforestation.

Waiting Room

Waiting Room is an AI program for mental health therapists.

Wealth Pulse

WealthPulse is a an AI tool that offers personalized financial planning, investment advice, and portfolio management services to retail investors.

ZenTutor

ZenTutor is a platform to connect learners with tutors.

Spellbook Launches Associate

Spellbook CEO Scott Stevenson

Spellbook CEO Scott Stevenson

Spellbook, the St. John’s legal software-maker that earlier this year raised US$20 million, announced Thursday it will expand its AI offerings with a new, agent-based product.

Artificial intelligence agents are tools that can be assigned tasks, plan how to execute them and then actually perform the assignment, such as by interacting with other software. In an interview, CEO Scott Stevenson said he expects agents to be as transformative to the AI landscape as the advent of commercially viable large language models was.

The software, dubbed Spellbook Associate, is designed to automate tasks that would traditionally be performed by the more junior lawyers at a law firm. It complements the business's eponymous flagship product for drafting contract clauses, as well as Spellbook Reviews, an editing tool.

“We’ve been working on (Spellbook Associate) for about a year, and I think we’re way ahead of the market on this,” said Stevenson, who led the company's successful pivot from a communications and document-sharing platform to an AI tool.

“You can delegate a project, almost to an AI colleague. It will go and figure out all the steps it needs to do, and execute them to get you some final output.”

The idea for Spellbook Associate came from coding tools like Devin AI and Cursor, which have implemented similar functionality for software developers, Stevenson said, continuing a trend of AI tools like large language models being used by coders first.

“I think you always see the technologists adopting things for their own workflows first, and that’s what we see as the signal,” he said. “If the engineers are adopting it, before long, it’s going to come for everything else.”

Associate is designed to interact with other software, such as Microsoft Word, via a Spellbook plugin. The company bills it as well-suited to tasks like searching the contents of a data room for potential issues, as well as creating financing documents and disclosure schedules, among other uses.

In total, Spellbook now works with more than 2,500 law offices and in-house legal teams, up from 1,700 in January and 600 in May of last year.

So far, Spellbook has onboarded 10 clients for Associate to gather feedback, with early access opening for another 30 or 40 companies this week. Stevenson said he expects a wider release by January.

The company has doubled its staff this year for a total of about 60 employees, with plans to reach 80 or 90 by the end of 2024. The January raise, worth about C$27 million at the time, was led by returning investor iNovia Capital and included Thompson Reuters Ventures, the VC arm of one of the world’s largest legal technology companies, Miami-based specialist investors The Legaltech Fund and Halifax's Concrete Ventures, among others.

“Spellbook Associate, we suspect, is going to be a huge driver of growth over the next two years and beyond," said Stevenson. "It’s going to be our key differentiator and unique value that we’re going to have for a while, though the core product is growing very quickly too.”

Life Sciences NS Extends BioPort Pitching Deadline

Life Sciences Nova Scotia, the provincial industry group, has extended the deadline for startups to apply to pitch at BioPort Atlantic, the region’s main biotech conference — but only until this Friday.

Slated to be held September 18 and 19 at the Nova Centre in Halifax, BioPort is now in its 23rd year, though this will be the first over which the Life Sciences Nova Scotia's recently appointed CEO Doris Grant has presided. The theme is “Powered by Possibilities,” which organizers describe as a reference to the potential of life sciences on the East Coast, with the right collaboration across the sector.

“As a presenter, you'll receive support to enable your company to create investor interest through compelling presentations, including powerful storytelling techniques and strategize to maximize your on-stage presence,” says Life Sciences Nova Scotia.

The company showcase is open to pre-seed and seed-stage startups You can learn more and apply here.

Volta, Dal Launch New Program for AI Startups

Halifax innovation hub Volta’s new startup program for AI companies, a joint project with Dalhousie University, reflects an increased focus by the organization on using partnerships to maximize resources, CEO Matt Cooper said in an interview Tuesday.

Speaking after a generative AI showcase hosted by Volta, Cooper said the more collaborative approach is a longstanding goal that has recently started to come to fruition. Describing Volta as an economic development organization, he added that partnering to deliver startup programming can help organizations limit the duplication of resources.

The AI program continues a trend begun by a collaboration agreement with the Halifax Partnership last year, as well as Tribe Network earlier this year.

“We’re not competing with other cities in Canada, we’re competing with the world,” said Cooper. “And if we don’t get this Atlantic Canadian, fragmented ecosystem to work together, I think the odds are highly stacked against us that we'll be able to do that.

“We’re seeing more support from federal and provincial (governments) to … see multiple organizations come in together to jointly put forth a program under their current funding levels.”

The AI startup program will use Volta’s standard residency model, which operates under a rolling enrolment system and offers companies mentorship and other resources. The content is aimed specifically at companies that incorporate AI into their core business models, products and operations. Dalhousie's role is to provide specialized workshops and technical training, as well as a talent pipeline for companies.

Cooper added that, while it is up to founders to decide whether AI is right for their businesses, he expects AI companies to generally attract more investment and yield greater economic development benefits as capital continues to flow into the space. For example, San Francisco-based Cognition Labs raised US$175 million in April, less than six months after it was founded.

How long companies receive support for depends on their performance in areas such as team engagement, market traction and technological progress, evaluated every 90 days. Founders must also commit to ethical AI development, meaning fairness, transparency and regulatory compliance, for example.

“If your product gets more valuable as these models improve, you’re on the right track,” Cooper told attendees at the AI showcase. “We’re looking for teams that are thinking about this intentionally.”

Cooper, who became Volta CEO in 2022 after his own career as an entrepreneur, characterized the administrative tasks involved in accessing many resources as burdensome for founders. The Dalhousie partnership aims to limit that demand on founders' time.

“Hopefully there will be more organizations that follow suit,” he said in the interview. “You end up making more impact with less resources, because we don’t have to be everything to (startups).”

You can learn more and apply to the AI program here.

Pureflow Recognized by Genesis

Pureflow, which has developed a high-tech tampon capable of detecting toxic shock syndrome and other infections, was victorious at Newfoundland and Labrador startup hub Genesis’s Pitch & Pints competition for startups from its Evolution accelerator.

The company, which won Best Pitch, is the brainchild of Memorial University engineering students Hannah Doyle & Kamsi Ifeanyichukwu.

The event itself capped off the 10-week Evolution accelerator for entrepreneurs who want help finding product-market fit. Entrepreneurs had four minutes to make their pitches and two minutes to take questions from judges. The program is aimed at companies with less than $1 million in annual revenue.

Meanwhile, Garreth Kippenhuck, Jager Cooper and Andrew Pratt won Best Student Team for Nutraforge, a diet app with a focus on speech-to-text features.

The other companies that competed were:

Speechcatcher

Yvan Rose

Speechcatcher is a “digital linguistic assessment tool.”

Doclin

Tahsin Ahmed Prottoy and Shawon Ibn Kamal

Doclin is a software-to-code platform that allows programmers to have discussions in real time.

Atlantic Biocorp

Dante Enewold

Atlantic Biocorp has developed a process for extracting a substance called chitosan, which is used in industries like pharmaceuticals manufacturing.

MeasAR

Greg Saunders

MeasAR has developed technology to use LIDAR for construction measurements. (LIDAR is Light Detection and Ranging, similar to RADAR but with light instead of sound waves.)

QuickFacts Raises $2M

QuickFacts Co-Founders Jeff and Christy Barsalou

QuickFacts Co-Founders Jeff and Christy Barsalou

A year after its first major equity funding raise, Halifax-based QuickFacts has closed a $2 million oversubscribed round led by Sandpiper Ventures on the back of strong user growth.

Also among the round’s investors are Mark Dobbins’ Killick Capital; Paul Hill, the former chair of cybersecurity unicorn Verafin; VC shop InsurTech NY; and several other longtime investors and executives in the IT space. Last year, the company raised $1.13 million.

The money is earmarked to fund its already-underway expansion across Canada and a push into the U.S. The company is planning a staged approach, with New York to come early in the process thanks to InsurTech NY connections in the market.

“The way our software is set up, it uses regional information — state-to-state, province-to-province information — and displays that depending on where the (insurance) customer is that the brokerage is trying to service,” said Chief Revenue Officer Jeff Barsalou in an interview Thursday.

Co-founded by Christy and Jeff Barsalou, with Christy running point as CEO, QuickFacts offers a platform that lets brokers view insurance packages from competing companies side by side for easy comparison. The company says it can reduce the time brokers spend searching for information by 10 to 20 times. It also says the platform offers brokers more depth of information than competitors.

"U.S. brokerages are experiencing similar pain points to Canadian brokerages, but on a much larger scale due to the sheer size of the market and state differences,” said Christy Barsalou in a statement.

“That's why technology is imperative for brokers to keep pace with rapid carrier information changes, ensuring they deliver accurate, up-to-date advice to clients, ultimately enhancing efficiency and service quality."

QuickFacts has tripled its active users over the past year, for a total of more than 2,500 users across about 100 brokerages. After a pilot in Atlantic Canada, QuickFacts launched in Ontario in 2022, Alberta in 2023 and the other provinces this year, except for Quebec, which will come slightly later because of differences in industry practices.

So far, the company has 19 employees, including a handful of recent hires, with plans to add several more staff to help with the U.S. rollout, as well as bilingual employees to focus specifically on Quebec.

"We are focusing on an upcoming launch for commercial insurance lines,” said Jeff Barsalou, using the industry term for different verticals within insurance. “We currently do personal and high value, but we’re focusing on getting the commercial lines out, as well as agricultural.

“That would round out the property and casualty markets that we’re currently providing our service to.”

In addition to the insurance quote software, QuickFacts also sells software for brokers to use throughout their workflows. Unlike the underwriting comparison software that displays jurisdiction-specific information, the “workflow software” is largely location-agnostic.

“That one, we could just launch it across the U.S.,” Jeff Barsalou said. “But we’ve got a bit of a different planned approach with that one. We’re building some partnerships for that right now.”

East Coast Startups Raised $77M in Q2

Three of the four Atlantic provinces continued a trend of weak fundraising performance in the second quarter, new data from the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association shows, but Newfoundland and Labrador helped salvage a comparatively robust $77 million total for the three months ended June 30.

Newfoundland raised more than the other three provinces combined at $56 million from four deals, though some of that total is tied to a $27 million raise by St. John's-based Spellbook that has its roots in the first quarter. Nova Scotia companies raised $13 million from six deals, New Brunswick startups $7 million from eight deals and P.E.I. $1 million from a single deal.

The CVCA figures, published in its H1 Venture Capital Market Overview, include only year-to-date totals, not quarterly numbers. Entrevestor has calculated the funding raised in the second quarter by subtracting the CVCA’s first quarter figures. The totals do not generally include angel funding.

“Investment activity in Atlantic Canada saw an uptick, with Newfoundland and Labrador leading the region by securing $56 million across four deals, primarily driven by a $27 million Series A round for St. John's-based Spellbook,” says the CVCA in the report.

Thanks to Newfoundland’s overperformance, the second quarter funding total represents an improvement over the first quarter’s $35 million figure, as well as the same period a year ago, when East Coast companies raised just $16 million.

The Newfoundland deals were split evenly between information technology and life sciences companies, while in Nova Scotia, life sciences was more dominant, accounting for four out of six funding deals in a departure from historical trends that have positioned the IT sector as the fundraising leader.

Nationally, startups raised $2.3 billion in the second quarter, up from $1.3 billion in the first quarter. The VC market continues to suffer the effects of high interest rates, with global totals having broken a seven-year low earlier this year, according to business intelligence provider CB Insights.

“Key sectors like life sciences and information and communication technologies continue to draw substantial investment, underscoring their importance in fostering innovation,” wrote CVCA Chief Executive Kim Furlong.

“However, the decrease in seed deals raises concerns. Early-stage investments have returned to 2020 levels, presenting obstacles for new entrepreneurs and potentially affecting the development of future high-growth companies necessary for the industry's long-term well-being.”

SONA Acquired by Celero

Bedford, N.S.-based payment processing startup SONA has been acquired by Nashville's Celero Commerce for an undisclosed sum.

Founded in 2016 and previously called SonaPay, SONA makes payment processing systems, including hardware and software, for businesses. Its product offerings include mobile payment processing, point of sale systems and cash advance services for merchants.

After the merger, Celero said in a statement it expects to process about US$26 billion of annual card volume. SONA, for its part, has just under 40 employees, according to LinkedIn data. Its client roster includes companies as varied as American auto maintenance chain Jiffy Lube and Halifax’s Sutton Realty Group.

“Since day one we have delivered pricing certainty, competitive rates and high-quality support to our customers,” said SONA founder Ryan O’Leary in a statement. “We take immense pride in being one of the most reputable brands in the Canadian payments’ ecosystem.

“We are excited to join the Celero team, enhancing the innovative and customer-centric technology and product solutions we provide our customers.”

Celero CEO Kevin Jones said his company wants SONA for its access to the Canadian market. Digital marketing assets uploaded by SONA last week stick to the company's existing branding, but with the addition of a "Powered by: Celero" tag.

“This acquisition provides a robust platform to bolster international growth through our core distribution channels,” he said. “These include partnerships with financial institutions and integration with business management software, which are vital in supporting the efficiency and scalability of small to mid-sized businesses.

“The alignment of our team cultures further fuels our enthusiasm for this partnership.”

Meta Files for Bankruptcy

Less than three months after Dartmouth-based Meta Materials said it was laying off 80 per cent of its workforce, the one-time unicorn has filed for bankruptcy.

Though the announcement did not appear on the company website, Meta on Friday filed for liquidity bankruptcy, according to the official Nasdaq news site. The company is seeking a Chapter 7 trustee to liquidate assets and settle debts, and all remaining employees have been laid off, said the report. 

Meta, which trades on the Nasdaq and once boasted a market cap of US$2.2 billion, is now valued by investors at less than US$5.3 million. Since it began trading on the exchange via a reverse listing in 2021, the company has faced United States Securities and Exchange Comission investigations, class action lawsuits, and threats of a delisting if shares fell too far.

In the three months that ended March 31, Meta lost about US$6.7 million, ending the quarter with $6.4 million of cash and equivalents against current liabilities of US$18.6 million and another $3 million of long-term debt.

“Management has determined that there is substantial doubt about the Company's ability to continue as a going concern,” said Meta in a regulatory filing in May. “We have not yet generated significant revenue from operations and do not anticipate that we will generate sufficient revenue from operations in the near term to sustain our operations.”

Meta once billed itself as having designed a platform technology for advanced materials development, particularly materials that refract or filter light. Its first commercial venture was making anti-laser coatings for Airbus cockpits, and it went on to invest in an array of research projects, with few results.

The board, which has now resigned, previously pointed some of the blame for that underperformance at former CEO and co-founder George Palikaras, who left the company in October. In a letter to shareholders, the board said his “founding creativity that began this company clashed with the fiscal health of META.”

The move followed public disagreement between Palikaras and other senior leadership over how to respond to share price volatility. Palikaras, who is now the subject of an SEC investigation for allegedly manipulating Meta’s stock, was replaced with turnaround artist Jim Fusaro, followed by COO Uzi Sasson.

In January, the company agreed to settle two class action lawsuits from shareholders in the United States for a combined $3 million. The suits, one federal and one in Nevada, alleged that Meta had misled investors about its rate of progress on business opportunities and failed to appropriately disclose the possibility of a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into its reverse listing.

And in February, the board of directors approved a reverse stock split to bring Meta back into compliance with the Nasdaq’s minimum bid price following threats of a delisting by the exchange. Shareholders in December rejected a similar proposal. But in Nevada, where Meta is incorporated, boards do not need shareholder approval for such decisions.

Now, along with the board, CEO Uzi Sasson has resigned and the U.S. courts have appointed Chicago law firm Grant Thornton as a trustee.

And in late July, the company told regulators it had suffered a “cybersecurity incident” involving a former executive.

“On initial investigation, the Company learned that a former executive officer of the Company deliberately de-activated and cancelled the renewal of the Company’s website, which significantly impacted the Company’s IT systems, including delivery and receipt of electronic email communications from customers, investors and other stakeholders of the Company,” said Meta.

“With the assistance of outside legal counsel, the Company was able to compel the reinstatement of the website and commenced a process to ensure that IT functionality would continue uninterrupted.”

Veer Picks Fosen to Build Hydrogen Container Ship

A rendering of Veer Group’s 100m hydrogen container ship design, the N°1.

A rendering of Veer Group’s 100m hydrogen container ship design, the N°1.

Lunenburg, N.S.-based Veer Group has chosen a shipbuilder to construct the first two of its 100-metre hydrogen- and sail-powered container vessels: Fosen Shipyard of Stralsund, Germany.

The companies announced they had signed a letter of intent last week. Veer plans to finance the construction with the help of a previously announced €50 million, or about C$73.2 million letter of intent with Amsterdam-based PROW Capital, which specializes in debt financing for green shipping technology.

“We realized that we had to find shipyards that were open to new things, especially with the hydrogen fuel cells,” said Chief Executive Danielle Southcott in an interview Friday.

Southcott and COO Christopher Frangione began with a list of about 40 potential shipyards, which they narrowed down to eight or 10 before visiting in-person. Now, Veer is in talks with potential charter customers, with voyages planned to begin in 2027.

“Broadly, we were looking at safe and reputable countries, and ‘safe and reputable’ also extends to the employee labour standards,” Southcott said. “We really did not want to be associated with … modern slave labour contracts, or any abuse of those types of social aspects.”

Southcott, who is also the founder of Costa Rica-based SAILCARGO, said a key ethos of the company is to maintain “squeaky-clean social and labour relations,” in keeping with its broader mission of sustainability.

Concerns about forced labour are a generally acknowledged problem in shipbuilding. The Institute for Human Rights and Business, after an international roundtable on the topic in in 2019, described the industry as afflicted by “widely documented cases of egregious abuses.”

Veer’s next priority will be ironing out the finer details of its contract with Fosen, followed by a last round of engineering refinements before the shipyard starts cutting metal in what Southcott hopes will be six to seven months.

Southcott is also in the process of raising a €750,000 investment round to fund the operations of Veer Corporation itself, separately from the financing for the ships. She and Frangione are aiming to complement the PROW Capital loan by selling minority equity stakes in the two ships, with each to be paid for with 80 percent with debt and 20 percent with equity funding.

The technical management behind the actual operation of Veer’s ships will be handled by Bernhard Schulte, a German company, though Southcott expects to hire a significant number of crew members to operate the complex propulsion technology on the vessel.

“Given our novel hull shape, the hydrogen fuel cells, the DynaRig (sails) — there’s so many different components — we need to ensure that the crew on board the ship are the right people, and they are cared for and trained correctly,” said Southcott.

Ocean Startup Challenge Seeks Applicants

The Ocean Startup Project is seeking applicants to its Ocean Startup Challenge, a competition that offers young bluetech companies up to $25,000, as well as mentorship and business development support.

Hosted by national industry group the Ocean Startup Project, the challenge is backed by the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, the P.E.I. BioAlliance and Invest Nova Scotia, among other organizations.

Launched in 2020, the challenge has now spent just over $2.25 million to back 95 startups.

Online information sessions will be held in English on Aug. 21 and Sept. 11 at 3:00p.m. Eastern, and in French on Sept. 5.

You can learn more and apply here.

Invest NS Made $3.2M of VC Deals in FY24

Invest Nova Scotia made $3.2 million of venture capital deals during the fiscal year that ended March 31, funding disclosures from the provincial economic development agency show.

The money was spread across seven deals, all but two of which involved companies based in Halifax, while the remainder are Cape Breton companies. These latest totals represent a marked decline from last year’s figure of $7.8 million across 13 deals.

The 2023-2024 sum, though, is an improvement on the 2021-2022 fiscal year, which was the venture capital shop’s last under its previous guise as Innovacorp. That year, it backed nine companies with a total of $2.1 million.

The largest single deal by far was a $1.5 million commitment to AlterBiota, which in May closed a $4 million funding round for its system that turns wood fibre into a concrete additive. And in keeping with the dominance of information technology businesses in the Atlantic Canadian startup space, four of the seven companies funded were ICT businesses.

Direct venture capital deals are also not the only way Invest Nova Scotia provides equity funding to young companies. Earlier this year, the agency said it had earmarked $60 million to join private sector investment funds as a limited partner, reallocating money that was previously set aside for loans.

Invest Nova Scotia also offers startups smaller amounts of funding to partner with universities on research and development work via its Productivity and Innovation Voucher Program

Here's a look at Invest Nova Scotia's venture capital deals and Innovation Voucher Program funding recipients from the past year:

 

VC DEALS

Frenter
$15,000
ICT
Halifax

3D BioFibR
$400,000
Life Science
Halifax

BlueLight Analytics
$500,000
Life Science
Halifax

Program.AI (o/a Wellnify)
$100,000
ICT
Halifax

Bright Breaks
$500,000
ICT
Halifax

Click2Order
$99,947
ICT
Sydney

Hollo Medical
$100,000
Life Sciences
Halifax

AlterBiota
$1,500,000
Clean Technology
Sydney (Edwardsville)

 

INNOVATION VOUCHER ANOUNCEMENTS

Academic Edge
$25,000

Acuicy
$25,000

Adrigo Insights
$15,000

Akso Marine Biotech
$15,000

Alter Biota
$15,000

Annapolis Valley Luffa
$15,000

Aup2P
$15,000

Axtion Independence Mobility
$25,000

Cotex Technologies
$15,000

Debye Single-Molecule Biotech
$15,000

Dockport
$25,000

Doodlelovely
$15,000

Drinkable Water Solutions
$25,000

Dr. Kombu Brewing Company
$15,000

Fiber Source Processing
$15,000

Foodimprover
$15,000

Formula Consulting
$25,000

Graphite Innovation and Technologies
$15,000

Greenlight Analytical
$15,000

Greenoil Solutions
$25,000

Halucenex Life Sciences
$25,000

Hawboldt Industries (1989)
$25,000

I. Deveau Fisheries
$25,000

Krava
$25,000

LaHave Drumlins Native Plant Nursery
$15,000

Leeway Yachts
$15,000

Lite-1; Microbial Colour
$15,000

Liven Proteins
$15,000

Lumi Beverages
$15,000

Master Merchant Systems Software
$15,000

Mara Renewables
$15,000

11979787 Canada
$25,000

Material Futures
$25,000

Motionbed
$25,000

Myomar Molecular
$25,000

Mypaq
$25,000

3310959 Nova Scotia
$15,000

Novaresp Technologies
$15,000

3279440 Nova Scotia
$15,000

Oberland Agriscience
$25,000

O & K Sea Salt
$25,000

Quantum Devices
$25,000

R D A Atlantic
$25,000

Reazent
$25,000

Revilong Prefab Structures
$15,000

Safe Harbour Research & Technologies
$15,000

Scotiaderm
$15,000

SGS Innova Solutions
$15,000

Shifting Shap3S
$15,000

Silver Roe Seafoods
$25,000

Subait
$15,000

The Tare Shop
$15,000

Urban Lighthouse Farm
$15,000

Zen Energy
$25,000

Dalhousie Receives Additional $10M for National Battery Hub

Dalhousie University will receive $10.15 million to establish a national research hub for battery technologies.

Dubbed the Canadian Battery Innovation Centre, or CBIC, the project is receiving about $8 million from Natural Resources Canada’s Energy Innovation Program and $2 million from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. The funds will complement the $1.98 million already committed by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada.

The centre wil also be part of a larger battery technology and electrification cluster emerging on the East Coast, led by companies like Halifax-based Zen Electric, BlueGrid and Glas Ocean. Entrevestor Live, our Sept. 17 conference focusing on the region's greatest innovation successes, will feature a session on the emerging battery cluster, sponsored by Emera. For more information and to buy tickets, click on this image:

The news comes in the wake of years of efforts by Dalhousie to establish itself as an international leader in the battery space — a quest that has already seen the institution partner with automotive giant Tesla. In a statement, Natural Resources Canada estimated the total project value at $20 million, which implies that about $8 million will have to come from Dalhousie or other sources.

The CBIC will be particularly focused on high-end prototyping efforts and on training skilled workers in the complex production processes required in modern battery manufacturing, according to the federal government statement, with the goal of producing between 25 and 50 new workers every year.

“The Canadian Battery Innovation Centre will provide our world-renowned battery scientists with a powerful tool, enabling them to rapidly envision, produce and test new batteries while collaborating with industry,” said Alice Aiken, Dalhousie’s vice president for research and innovation.

“This state-of-the-art facility will be a magnet for industry, fostering a research and development hub in Nova Scotia that promises to transform the science, the sector and the greening of our economy.”

The CBIC will be led by longtime Dalhousie battery researchers Michael Metzger and Chongyin Yang. Together with Jeff Dahn, one of the key researchers on the Tesla work, the two PhDs already run the Metzger, Yang, Dahn Research Group, which specializes in the same subject matter.

BloombergNEF, the financial software giant's commodities research arm, earlier this year awarded Canada the top spot on its Global Lithium-Ion Battery Supply Chain Ranking, displacing China. The rankings are based on Bloomberg's assessment of a country's "potential to build a secure, reliable, and sustainable lithium-ion battery supply chain."

Propel Announces Traction and Growth Grads

Virtual startup accelerator Propel has announced the seven companies graduating from the latest cohort of its Traction and Growth program for scaling companies.

Traction and Growth is meant for startups with more developed operations than those in Propel’s earlier-stage Vision and Validation program. To be eligible, entrepreneurs must have monthly revenue and be working on their business full-time.

“We value the role that we play in getting these founders on a clear path to building and scaling their companies,” said Propel CEO Kathryn Lockhart in a statement. “We look forward to seeing where they go next.”

Here’s a look at the graduates:

Three Hippies

Prince Edward Island

Geordie Noye, CEO

Three Hippies is a software-as-a-service company developing Locarius.io, a digital ticket platform that guarantees authenticity and ownership.

Air Clarity Solutions

New Brunswick

Mike Rushton, President

Air Clarity Solutions is developing air filtration technology to remove indoor air pollution in industrial settings.

Atlantic Institute for Resilience

Nova Scotia

Dr. Jackie Kinley

AIR sells mental resiliency training software to companies and organizations for use by their employees.

dependbuild

New Brunswick

Conor O’Brien and Tom Cooper, Co-Founders

Dependbuild sells cloud software to help municipalities and infrastructure developers identify, assess and track risks to their construction projects.

iNav4U

Nova Scotia

Olivier Hendrikx, CEO

INav4U has developed the Wayfinder Dashboard, which is an enterprise software platform for yacht management that offers real-time monitoring and alerts about a vessel’s operation.

RemoteCon

Nova Scotia

RemoteCon sells high-tech sensors and communications modules for the oceans economy.

Seathru Technologies

Newfoundland and Labrador

Seathru is developing a digital twin remote monitoring system for marine vessels meant to predict equipment failures before they happen.

Farrell to Host Entrevestor Live

We’re delighted to announce that Dr. Ellen Farrell, professor of venture capital and entrepreneurship at Saint Mary’s University, has agreed to be the Chair and Host of Entrevestor Live at Volta on the afternoon of Sept. 17.

Entrevestor Live is our annual event showcasing the best and the brightest in the Atlantic Canadian innovation community. This half-day event highlights the startups that have significant global sales and demonstrates how entrepreneurs can grow market-leading companies within the East Coast ecosystem. It destroys the misimpression that Atlantic Canada has only early-stage startups.

Farrell will lead a program that includes discussions with Halifax-based Dash Hudson and Fredericton-based Eigen Innovation, and fireside chats with Iain Klugman, the Co-Founder of Kitchener, Ont.-based Communitech, as well as Rachael Craig, the Co-Founder of San Francisco-based Motionhall. There will also be panel discussions on the East Coast companies that are or have been XPRIZE finalists, and on the burgeoning battery cluster in the region.

Farrell will be a fantastic MC for this event, as she’s been a leader in the Atlantic Canadian startup community for decades.

She is a national-award winning mentor and expert in VC, and an advocate for venture capital as a way for founders to grow scalable growth companies. She has overseen the university’s Masters of Technology, Entrepreneurship and Innovation program and its cutting-edge programs in venture capital.

Last week on Entrevestor, we showcased her new startup InvestorQ&A, which is commercializing a new software product aimed at helping women founders perform better during question and answer sessions with investors.

You can learn more about Entrevestor Live and register to attend here.

Sustane Ships First Naphtha to Europe

Inside Sustane Technologies’ Chester, N.S. production plant.

Inside Sustane Technologies’ Chester, N.S. production plant.

Circular economy startup Sustane Technologies’ first shipment of naphtha fuel derived from waste plastics is on its way to a client in Europe.

In an interview, CEO Peter Vinall said the company tested a variety of possible plastic sources for its plant in Chester, N.S., such as rejected plastics from recycling streams. The process has been made more efficient by Sustane developing a suite of in-house automation technology to help sort plastics, he said.

Sustane itself began with technology developed by CTO Javier De La Fuente. He headed up the initial research in Spain to process landfill waste into biomass pellets with the help of steam. Then, in 2014, he launched the company in Nova Scotia with Vinall and CFO Robert Richardson.

“We’re active in Alberta and Texas right now on some projects, but job one for us is really getting our Chester, Nova Scotia plant up to full capacity,” said Vinall.

“We’ve got many communities and groups that want to work with us to develop projects, but we’ve got to make sure we have the capacity to do that.”

In addition to the biomass pellets and naphtha, Sustane also processes waste plastic into diesel fuel. And because Sustane’s diesel is quite light, it can be used as an input for plastic-making, in lieu of the naphtha. The company recently began a large scale trial with a customer in the U.S., to which it is shipping 25,000 litres of diesel. Once the Chester plant is operating at maximum capacity, Vinall said he expects to produce that volume every few days.

The naphtha research and development work, meanwhile, was funded with $950,000 from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, announced earlier this week, while the biomass pellets received Canadian Food Inspection Agency approval for use as fertilizer last fall.

Sustane currently has 20 employees, mostly based in Chester. In a departure from standard innovation economy hiring practices, Vinall often favours former power engineers for roles in the production facility: “We find that they have three to four years of fairly practical experience and training. … So it just gives them a good baseline of mechanical aptitude and some exposure to operations.”

Vinall's team is also investigating the possibility of using the biomass pellets to produce natural gas, and is collaborating with a major American gas company. North of the border, though, a lack of regulatory framework for pricing natural gas in Nova Scotia is forcing the company to look to other parts of Canada to sell its product.

“One of the challenges in Nova Scotia is that there’s not a large gas market that you get in places like British Columbia, or Quebec, or the U.S., where it’s possible to get preferential pricing for renewable products, renewable natural gas,” Vinall said “We don’t see that so much.”

InvestorQ&A Deploys Persuasion Research

Ellen Farrell, the Saint Mary’s University professor who has been one of the key architects behind the Sobey School of Business’s entrepreneurship programming, is commercializing a new software product aimed at helping women founders perform better during question and answer sessions with investors.

InvestorQ&A is software designed to help entrepreneurs inspire more confidence from would-be funders with the help of regulatory focus theory — a field of psychology that essentially studies the behavioural contrasts between fear-based decision-making and goal-oriented decisions. In an interview Wednesday, Farrell said she sees it as useful to focus on question-and-answer sessions because pitch training itself is already widely available, whereas Q&A sessions represent their own specialized skillset.

Farrell specializes in researching the Atlantic Canadian startup ecosystem and has taken a leading role in organizing Venture Grade, the Sobey School’s student VC fund. She has also been the driving force behind SMU’s delegations to the international Venture Capital Investment Competition.

“InvestorQ&A basically addresses the increasingly compelling problem of women’s inability to raise venture capital,” said Farrell in an interview Wednesday. “And so, we know that excellent science proves that there are … techniques that women need to know about and know what to address in order to hone their investor Q&A, which is where the investment decisions are made.”

Last year, according to data from Entrevestor’s 2023 Atlantic Canada Startup Data Report, less than one per cent of the equity funding raised by the region’s companies flowed to businesses led by women, just $24.3 million. That happens to be almost the exact same amount of funds that have been raised by founders trained on InvestorQ&A, at $23.2 million.

Farrell originally created the InvestorQ&A platform to provide investor readiness training to student entrepreneurs at SMU. In that capacity, a little over 50 people used the system, with about another 200 using it since Farrell launched the company as an independent business. (She said SMU does not take an ownership stake in technologies developed by its faculty.)

“What we are doing is basically using behaviourally based instruction — role-play, practicing — to be able to inculcate women with qualities that help them look like the leaders that they are,” she said.

Farrell added that the instruction focuses on such questions as:  "What are the kinds of topics that are positively correlated with investment? And what are the kinds of topics that are negatively correlated?”

Farrell’s team, which includes five people, focused on Canada as its beachhead market, but now also has customers in the central United States. One recently acquired client has been the Sears think[box], a seven-story startup accelerator at Case Western Reserve University, a private research institution in Ohio. For startup support organizations that want to directly deliver all of their client programming, InvestorQ&A has also helped train accelerator employees to deliver the same training in a live format.

The company’s revenue model, she added, is to partner with startup support organizations or other entities that train entrepreneurs, like post-secondary institutions. As of now, the software is always presented with InvestorQ&A branding, though Farrell said white labeling the software could be a possibility in future for the right client.

“Some people just need that added gravitas that puts them over the edge, and they don’t know that’s what they need,” said Farrell. “They need somebody to help them understand. There is a discipline that you need to have to be seen as a leader in these areas, and you have to demonstrate that discipline.”

Sustane Receives $950K from ACOA

Sustane’s 40,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Chester, N.S.

Sustane’s 40,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Chester, N.S.

Sustane Technologies has received a $950,000 funding package from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and used it to develop a system for converting plastic waste into naphtha — one of the constituents of gasoline and jet fuel, though the Chester, NS, company plans to sell it for use in manufacturing new plastics.

In a statement, ACOA indicated Sustane has already received at least some of the funds. Records obtained via the federal government’s open data portal show the agreement, which takes the form of a loan, began in March and is slated to continue until spring of next year.

The company can now produce 1,000 litres of fuel per tonne of plastic input, thanks to research and development work it conducted with the money. The process does not require combustion, unlike conventional naphtha production, which involves heating oil to about 120 degrees Celsius. 

Sustane itself began with technology developed by CTO Javier De La Fuente. He headed up the initial research in Spain to process landfill waste into biomass pellets with the help of steam. Then, in 2014, he launched the company in Nova Scotia with President Peter Vinall and CFO Robert Richardson.

“This is a pivotal time for Sustane, as we have made significant breakthroughs, including producing feedstock for circular plastic production,” said Vinall. “The support of ACOA will enable us to focus more resources to scale this effort as we continue to forge important global partnerships.”

Sustane opened its 40,000 square-foot Chester manufacturing plant in 2019. Other than the naphtha fuel, the company also manufactures biomass pellets, synthetic diesel and an organic fertilizer for which it received Canadian Food Inspection Agency approval in September.

Hack Will Not impact Startups: Invest NS

A phishing scam that led to Invest Nova Scotia sending $573,000 to an imposter posing as a venture capital executive will not impact startups, the provincial economic development corporation said Monday.

First reported by The Halifax Examiner and AllNovaScotia, the theft happened in May and was discovered in June. The theft was the work of a hacker using a Russian VPN. In an email, Director of Strategic Communications Shawn Hirtle said Invest Nova Scotia is tweaking its internal processes to prevent a repeat incident. But he added those changes will not affect the organization’s clients.

“Since the cyber fraud was detected, Invest Nova Scotia took steps to contain the unauthorized access, including deactivating the specific email account, resetting all employee passwords, and locking down our server from receiving logins from jurisdictions deemed high risk,” wrote Hirtle.

“For our clients, all programming at Invest Nova Scotia continues. Invest Nova Scotia staff have implemented additional security features as part of our work that are not expected to have a significant impact on how we interact with clients.”

Court documents reveal the $573,000 was intended for Sandpiper Ventures, a venture capital firm in which Invest Nova Scotia is a limited partner. The money was requested as part of a larger capital call. But the perpetrator gained access to some of Invest Nova Scotia’s systems and sent a forged email directing that the money be sent to a bank account controlled by the hacker.

Hirtle said the transfer's intended recipients have since been paid the money they were owed, though Sandpiper has not been publicly identified as the other party by Invest Nova Scotia. He added that Invest Nova Scotia’s other programming continues apace.

Innovation Den Seeks Competitors

The Nova Scotia Health Innovation Hub and QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation are looking for applicants to their Innovation Den pitch competition, which offers companies up to $100,000 to bring new medical technologies to market.

The event, slated to be held November 14, will have two divisions: one for healthcare workers interested in innovating within their existing careers, and one for startups. Companies pitching in the startup division will compete for the Rising Innovator Award, worth $20,000, the Accelerator Award, worth $50,000 and the $100,000 New Path Award.

“Modeled after the popular series Dragons’ Den, six aspiring innovators will live pitch their business concept and product idea to a panel of Den Judges who collectively will decide the order of the winning pitches,” say organizers.

“Locally driven projects will be evaluated on several key factors including a clear objective with measures in place for evaluation, scalability potential, and overall ability to advance clinical care and patient outcomes.”

Last year’s winner was Hollo Medical, which is developing an improved spacer for asthma inhalers. Ordinary spacers are too large to conveniently carry and have high non-compliance rates, especially among children. But Hollo’s Bre-Z Chamber spacer is designed to be smaller and more portable than conventional options.

You can learn more and apply here.

GIT Approaches 300 Vessels Coated

The Halifax Transit ferry Rita Joe being painted with a coating from GIT.

The Halifax Transit ferry Rita Joe being painted with a coating from GIT.

When Marcel Gaier commutes to work these days, he often travels via a ferry treated with his own company’s environmentally friendly hull coating.

Gaier is the chief technology officer for GIT Coatings, previously Graphite Innovation and Technologies, which he co-founded eight years ago with Mo AlGermozi, the chief executive officer. Their business has seen about 400 percent sales growth so far this year, after they closed out 2023 by coating the Halifax Transit ferry Rite Joe, named for the Mi'kmaq poet.

GIT has been building out its teams in Singapore, Germany and Greece — global shipping hubs — and recently closed deals to coat the fleets of Hong Kong shipping giant Pacific Basin and Helsinki-based Finnlines. Just over a year after GIT raised a $10.2 million Series A funding round, a total of nearly 300 vessels have been coated by the company worldwide, with close to 95 percent of its sales coming from exports.

“We are seeing a shift in mentality from the industry to invest in more sustainable technology, and trying to be more practical when it comes to marine growth or biofouling management,” Gaier said in an interview Friday. “The ship owners really want to keep their ships really clean, so they are very efficient and they are not polluting with invasive species.”

GIT manufactures a suite of graphene coatings designed to prevent corrosion and prevent the buildup of organisms like barnacles and algae, called biofouling in the industry, which shipping lines have historically prevented with poisons called biocides.

Graphene, in contrast, is a carbon-based material that is 200 times stronger than steel and efficiently conducts heat and electricity, while being safer for the environment than conventional solutions. It also serves to reduce friction, indirectly cutting ships’ fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

AlGermozi and Gaier’s team started the commercialization process in 2022 when they signed a deal with Eastern Pacific Shipping of Singapore. Many of its large contracts, including the Finnlines agreement, have grown out of smaller deals with clients that proved happy with the coatings.

Gaier said his company's coatings are "a bit ahead of legislation" as they don’t have biocides or almost any other volatile materials. "This really facilitates the adoption for a lot of clients, because they have to comply with emissions regulations and environmental regulations when they use the ships in specific regions,” said Gaier.

“We’re seeing a lot of local jurisdictions now being aware of the biocides and the toxic chemicals that the commercial anti-fouling paints use.”

Canada is among the jurisdictions tightening rules around the use of biocides in shipping, with new regulations set to take effect in May that will require all biocide products to be specifically approved by the federal government before being imported, sold or advertised in the country.

GIT, which has grown from a 20-person team last year to more than 50 this year, installs its coatings by collaborating with shipyards in the region best placed for the needs of the client. GIT employees train staff at the shipyards to perform the installations themselves, which has lasting benefits because the industry bodies that govern large vessels require their hulls to be periodically recoated.

“Most ships, they … take out of the water and they do retrofits of the engine, propeller and hull, many areas of the ship, every two-and-a-half to five years,” Gaier added. “Our coating, we are a more durable alternative, so it’s engineered to be more mechanically durable. We can [last] longer than the current coatings in the market.”

Bluedrop Receives $449K from ACOA

Bluedrop Training and Simulation, a longtime player in the East Coast innovation economy, is receiving a $448,950 loan from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency to incorporate AI into its product offerings.

One half of an organization that also includes Bluedrop ISM, or integrated skills management, Bluedrop Training and Simulation sells virtual reality simulators and training programs for industrial applications. A statement from ACOA said the company, which is based in St John's, plans to use the funding to incorporate generative AI into its software.

“This repayable investment will help the company leverage AI to quickly adapt its simulations to individual needs based on real-time feedback, making the trainee and instructor experience more personalized and effective,” ACOA said. “These improvements will help Bluedrop enhance mission training while remaining competitive and efficient, reaching new markets and maintaining data security.”

Originally founded in 1992 by Emad Rizkalla, Bluedrop went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange via a reverse acquisition in 2012. The virtual reality simulation division was created in 2013, and its clients now include all three branches of the Canadian military, first responders of various stripes and the energy sector.

In 2021, the company went private, again under the ownership of Rizbollo Holdings and Name 3 Capital. Both purchasing companies were controlled by Rizkalla and board chair Derrick Rowe.

According to LinkedIn data, Bluedrop now has more than 150 employees across its two business units.

“ACOA funding is helping Bluedrop transform the training paradigm and improve the training experience by introducing AI-driven instructors and instructions,” said Jean-Claude Siew, Bluedrop’s executive vice president for technology and simulation.

“It will also help accelerate developments by improving the tools supported by AI, while adding non-symmetrical training methods to adapt to specific trainee needs.”

Invest NS Seeks Agtech, Biotech, Cleantech

Provincial economic development agency Invest Nova Scotia is looking for applicants to the next cohort of its GreenShoots accelerator, which offers up to $40,000 of funding.

GreenShoots offers agtech, biotech and cleantech companies funding and mentorship to develop their ideas. Cleantech made a particularly strong showing this time, with all but one of the biotech and agtech companies also offering ecological value propositions.

Launched in 2020, the competition is run by Invest Nova Scotia, the Nova Scotia Innovation Hub and Guelph, Ont.-based Bioenterprise Canada, an innovation-focused industry group. To qualify, startups must have booked less than $1 million in cumulative sales and not have already raised more than $25,000 from Invest Nova Scotia or its predecessor Innovacorp.

You can learn more and apply here. The deadline is Aug.16.

Doris Grant to Lead NS Health Innovation Hub

Life Sciences Nova Scotia CEO Doris Grant

Life Sciences Nova Scotia CEO Doris Grant

Life Sciences Nova Scotia CEO Doris Grant will take on an additional role following a collaboration agreement between her industry group and Nova Scotia Health.

Grant has been announced as the Nova Scotia Health Innovation Hub’s new managing director, returning to the organization where she previously spent just over three years as senior director of innovation. Gail Tomblin Murphy, a top civil servant at Nova Scotia Health who has been closely involved in the running of the Innovation Hub, will stay on in an advisory capacity.

“This partnership presents a unique opportunity to integrate our efforts and amplify our impact on healthcare innovation and the life sciences ecosystem,” Grant said in a statement. “I look forward to driving initiatives that will benefit patients, healthcare providers, innovators, entrepreneurs and our vibrant healthcare and life sciences ecosystem."

Grant, who was appointed CEO of Life Sciences Nova Scotia in May, previously spent just over a year as its vice president of business development and strategy. In total, she has worked in the biotech space for nearly 30 years and held private sector, public sector and academic roles.

“I believe there is a real opportunity here to coordinate our efforts and make our ecosystem stronger,” said Life Sciences Nova Scotia chair Kevin Sullivan. “Not only between LSNS and Health Innovation Hub, but across the ecosystem. We are excited to play our part in helping make that happen.”

It is not uncommon for founders in the life sciences space to tell Entrevestor that the industry would benefit from increased collaboration, particularly in the realm of commercializing innovation.

“Our vision for this organization is to have a thriving, resilient, connected life sciences ecosystem,” Grant said in May. “That is what we believe in, and that is what we want to build, across the province and beyond.”

Infusd Signs P.E.I. Partnership

Infusd Nutrition co-founders David Giffin, left, and Jack MacDonald

Infusd Nutrition co-founders David Giffin, left, and Jack MacDonald

Halifax supplements startup Infusd Nutrition has signed a partnership agreement with another, more mature life sciences company nearby in P.E.I., Natures Crops International.

Infusd, the creation of lawyer Jack MacDonald and chemical engineer David Giffin, has developed a process to make fat-soluble nutrients, such as omega-3 fatty acids and many vitamins, water soluble. The company uses the technology to produce supplement additives for other companies to add to their own drinks, supplements or other products.

Natures Crops, meanwhile, has been operating since 2004 and is the producer of a substance trademarked as Ahiflower oil. According to Health Canada, that means oil from the seeds of a plant colloquially called corn gromwell, native to Europe and Asia. Rich in omega-3s, its taste is sometimes described as nutty.

“In a market that has seen rapidly rising costs for omega-3 ingredients, a carrier system that enables greater bioavailability of the active ingredient in foods and beverages means meeting daily omega-3 intake goals can be achieved at considerably lower costs,” said Giffin in a statement.

The taste of Ahiflower oil is important, Infusd said in a press release, because consumer objections to omega three supplements have traditionally included flavours that some find offensive. The company believes Ahiflower’s market positioning also benefits from it being plant-based, unlike most competing products, which tend to be made from fish.

“With the Infusd Nutrition platform’s next-generation solubility gains, we’re excited to see many new consumer-facing food and beverage niches filled with delicious, convenient, and highly stable plant-based omega-3-6-9 offerings addressing, for example, kids' nutrition, healthy aging, and active lifestyles,” said Natures Crops CEO Andrew Hebard.

In December, Infusd Co-Founder MacDonald said the company would sell its technology under a licensing model, adapting its processes to match the needs of ingredient producers at its research and development facility in Windsor, N.S.

South of the border, meanwhile, MacDonald and Giffin are pursuing a second revenue stream: producing their own ingredients with the help of a co-manufacturing facility in upstate New York. That plan will likely include working with the cannabis industry, since the companies that make cannabis-infused beverages face similar technical hurdles to those that affect natural flavours and colours, and in a market that is still fast-evolving.

The facility in Windsor is capable of producing 20,000 servings of a given ingredient per day to help Infusd test new formulations and help its licensing clients scale their manufacturing processes, while the New York facility will have capacity for 1 million servings daily. On its website, the company lists 14 product lines.

And in January, Infusd became the only Atlantic Canadian startup out of eight companies to be accepted into this year’s cohort of the federal Trade Commissioner’s Canadian Technology Accelerator for foodtech. The annual program offers innovative food companies training and business development opportunities focusing on exporting to a target region — in the case of the foodtech program California and the Upper Midwest.

BIOVECTRA To Be Sold for C$1.3B

BIOVECTRA, the Charlottetown drug maker that in 2019 was bought by Miami-based H.I.G. Capital for US$250 million, has reached an agreement to be sold again, this time for US$925 million or C$1.27 billion.

The deal with Santa Clara, California’s Agilent Technologies is expected to close by the end of this year, BIOVECTRA said in a statement. The companies did not disclose the conditions that must be met for it to close, but promised to reveal more information after the transaction is finished. 

The project will see BIOVECTRA share supply chain resources with: Toronto's CCRM, which produces regenerative medicine-based technologies and cell and gene therapies; Massachusetts-based Cytiva; Calgary’s Northern RNA; and Hamilton, Ont.-based OmniaBio. The aim is to standardize work on lentiviral vector vaccines, which are immunotherapies that have shown promise in treating cancer, the consortium said in a statement.

Agilent and BIOVECTRA are both CDMOs, or contract development and manufacturing organizations — essentially white label drugmakers.

“BIOVECTRA's manufacturing capabilities further expand Agilent's end-to-end biopharma offerings into new growth vectors, including workflows that seamlessly integrate analytical instrumentation, consumables, and a wide range of lab services,” said Agilent CEO Padraig McDonnell.

The news comes just months after BIOVECTRA signed a supply chain partnership deal with a quartet of other life sciences companies as part of a project from NGEN, the federal manufacturing Supercluster.

“Today is a testament to the reputation BIOVECTRA has built as a trusted partner with our roster of clients and to our internal efforts to continuously grow our service offering, ultimately better serving patients’ lives,” said BIOVECTRA Chief Executive Oliver Technow. “We are grateful for the role H.I.G. has played in our success these past five years and are excited to further build on that with Agilent through this synergistic pairing."

Correction: The original article had an inaccurate description of CCRM, which we have changed.  

Aucure Readies B2B AI

Aucure CEO Brent Pretty and COO Andrea King

Aucure CEO Brent Pretty and COO Andrea King

Two alumni of cybersecurity unicorn Verafin have returned to the startup world with an AI tool meant to help business-to-business product teams gather customer feedback, and just months after founding their new business, they have raised about $800,000.

Aucure is the creation of Andrea King, who spent a little over two years at Verafin before becoming NASDAQ’s Director of Media and Government Relations, and Brent Pretty, who ran Verafin’s AI automation team. Pretty is Aucure’s CEO, and King is COO.

The $800,000 is part of a larger funding round, the first tranche of which the team hopes to complete by fall, King said in an interview Monday, adding the company so far has five employees.

“We’re building AI agents for B2B software companies,” she said, with an AI agent being a tool that can interact with its digital environment to perform tasks, like gathering information. “It does customer interviews. So it actually will create the ‘call plan,’ do the interview using text or voice … and it instantly gathers their customer feedback of what they’re feeling about the product or what they need changed, or problems they’re having.”

The AI then analyzes the resulting data with the aim of identifying trends it can share with employees at the company conducting the research, making it possible to gather customer feedback at a scale that would be unfeasible for humans.

When a company using Aucure wants to gather customer feedback, it makes contact via an emailed link and records their responses in the form of a text chat or video. Later, King said she and Pretty plan to add the ability for users to share their screens, such as in order to point out specific elements of an application interface.

“The AI agents that we have act like the product manager would,” said King. “So a customer might say, ‘I really want an export button so that I can export my data into Excel.’ The AI agent and the LLM (large language model) … listens and asks probing questions. ‘Okay, so you want an export button, can you tell me why? And how would you use that?’

“It’s listening and then asking the next logical question that needs to be asked to understand what the customer wants.”

King and Pretty have been testing Aucure with a handful of beta users, and their initial beachhead market will be business-to-business software companies with between 50 and 250 employees. Later, they plan to target larger enterprise customers.

“We did these initial, early-validation calls with all these potential customers, and it was like an instant click: ‘Yes, I need that,’” said King, adding it would have been technologically unfeasible to build Aucure even a year ago.

“Some (prospective clients) were like, ‘I’m trying to solve this problem right now.’ So it was very evident to us that the time is now.”

Project Nujio’qonik to Test Precious Metals Alternatives

John Risley’s World Energy GH2 plans to work with Dalhousie University to test a roster of potential replacements for the costly precious metals used in green hydrogen production — with the help of AI.

World Energy earlier this summer received environmental approval to build a four-gigawatt wind farm and 1,200-megawatt hydrogen plant near Stephenville, Newfoundland and Labrador. Project Nujio’qonik will have an order of magnitude more capacity than the largest green hydrogen project currently operational, Sinopec's 260-megawatt Kuqa facility in Xinjiang, China.

But green hydrogen production — in this case to be powered by 328 wind turbines, as opposed to the historical norm of coal or natural gas — relies on a process called water electrolysis, which splits water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen atoms. The chemical reactions used in the process require precious metals as a catalyst, to which researchers at Dalhousie hope to find an alternative.

The scientists are backed by $500,000 from the National Research Council of Canada and led by chemists Mita Dasog and Michael Freund, along with computer scientist Frank Rudzicz. They plan to develop an AI tool to analyze thousands of published research papers to identify potential replacement catalysts, the most promising of which will be subjected to laboratory testing.

The final stage of the process will see World Energy test the catalysts under “realistic water conditions,” the university said in a press release.

“Given the local interest in green hydrogen, it is also important that we create a path to manufacture electrolyzers without significant backlogs,” said Dasog. “Moving away from precious metals will help mitigate some of the challenges associated with their supply-chain.”

World Energy plans to build Project Nujio’qonik in stages of 600 megawatts each, with the aim of selling the hydrogen to Germany as an alternative to Russian gas. Later, the company also hopes its hydrogen could offer a potential means of greening carbon-intensive transportation businesses.

Other industry players in the region have shown similar interest. The Port of Halifax, for example, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Port of Hamburg in 2022 to share decarbonization tech. Halifax port CEO Allan Gray has said that includes information-sharing related to hydrogen fuel.

On Project Nujio’qonik, meanwhile, the Qalipu First Nation is one of two main project partners, along with the Town of Stephenville. The First Nation has about 23,000 members across Newfoundland and Labrador and backed World Energy’s regulatory bid with a Traditional Land and Resource Use Study.

Axis Sales Accelerator Seeks Applicants

The University of New Brunswick is looking for applicants to its Saint John-based Axis Sales Accelerator, a 10-week program for business-to-business startups looking to grow their revenues and prepare to raise capital.

The program, which will begin in September and require three to five hours per week from participants, is aimed at positioning the founder of a company as its lead salesperson, as well as bolstering lead conversion and developing a scaleable sales strategy.

UNB says ideal candidates will be based in the Saint John area. For 12 months after the end of the accelerator, participants will continue to have access to coaching, mentorship and office space.

"The Axis Accelerator exists to help start-ups build a scalable, repeatable sales strategy, and raise their first rounds of financing," says UNB.

You can learn more here and apply here.

FURWARD Wins at MTME: NEXT

From left to right, Safia Naznin, Ilerioluwa Fadeyi and Oluwaseun Rotimi

From left to right, Safia Naznin, Ilerioluwa Fadeyi and Oluwaseun Rotimi

Six student teams from the University of New Brunswick’s Master of Technology Management and Entrepreneurship program pitched their startup ideas Thursday, with pet-sitting marketplace FURWARD taking home the $1,500 top prize.

The MTME program, managed under the umbrella of UNBs J. Herbert Smith Centre, offers students specialized training in how to commercialize technological innovation. The entrepreneurs were competing in MTME: NEXT, their degree’s concluding demo day. OMIMATIC, which plans to sell residential wellwater management systems for the African market, took home the $1,000 second place prize.

FURWARD is led by CEO Oluwaseun Rotimi, along with COO Safia Naznin and CTO Ilerioluwa Fadeyi. The trio earlier this year launched a website that matches pet-sitters with people who need their animals cared for while they travel or are otherwise indisposed, making revenue from subscriptions and commissions. They have aimed to differentiate their business from more generalized e-commerce marketplaces by offering unusual features like video check-ins and the ability to book a pet-sitter even on short notice.

“Our ask today is for strategic advice on how best to scale our organisation,” said Rotimi. “Also, we need your connections to insurance companies, to financial institutions. … And finally we’re raising a funding round of $450,000.”

Users on the site build out detailed profiles for themselves and their pets. When a pet owner wants to make a booking, they can either request a specific pet-sitter, or send the request to the pool of available workers.

“The more you pet-sit on our platform, the lower the commission we charge you,” said Rotimi “And while you’re sitting, we also provide insurance coverage for you.”

OMIMATIC, meanwhile, is the creation of CEO Shade Oyedepo, COO Semako Zannu, Chief Product Officer Olumide Kusimo and CTO Adebayo Onafowokan. They hope their water management systems will replace the manually operated borehole well systems common in the company’s planned beachhead market of Nigeria. The manual systems use pumps to force water from drilled wells into tanks at ground level, with a second pump moving the water into an additional, elevated tank so that gravity provides water pressure.

“This is a manual system, and it’s a legacy system that has been in existence for decades,” said Onafowokan. “What we are doing is to automate this entire water-driven [process]. All you need to do once you have our product is to install our water level-sensing module and our feedback and control unit.”

While OMIMATIC does have peer companies focused on the industrial and commercial markets, Oyedepo said Nigeria’s residential market is underserved. Onafowokan added that many companies from elsewhere in the world underestimate the commercial potential of Africa, meaning it often takes a company founded by African entrepreneurs to prove out new markets.

“Our plan is to go into partnerships with existing real estate developers,” said Oyedepo, adding that the strategy will be supplemented with retail and e-commerce sales.

“For those that are developing new estates, they will integrate our solution into the new estate. For the existing estates also, we’ve identified about 150 residential estates within Lagos that we want to start with, so we’ll be engaging with their Excos (community groups).”

The other startups that pitched included GUARDEE, which is developing a prepayment system for the jurisdictions in Africa where emergency healthcare providers require payment up-front; ZAPEQ, which is developing software to analyze attendee behaviour at large events like trade shows; Zotuen, which is a platform for homeowners and tradespeople to find each other; and Mulli, which is developing a sensor and software suite to train golfers. 

MIMOSA Wins Atlantic AI Healthtech Challenge

MIMOSA Diagnostics CEO Dr. Karen Cross

MIMOSA Diagnostics CEO Dr. Karen Cross

Just a month after it raised a funding round led by California’s Kern Venture Group, Halifax medtech startup MIMOSA Diagnostics is heading to Chicago in August to compete in the North American finals of the AI Healthtech Innovation Challenge.

Founded by Dr. Karen Cross, a plastic surgeon, and General Leung, a magnetic resonance researcher at the University of Toronto, MIMOSA has developed technology to more quickly diagnose bedsores and similar wounds via a process called tissue oximetry, which essentially uses light to measure tissue health.

The company placed first in the Atlantic division this week, besting runners-up Brightlight Health and ResolveHD. Brightlight sells AI tools for patient intake and management to enterprise clients in the healthcare space, while ResolveHD has developed an AI system that uses natural language processing to read and clean up disorganized medical records.

When MIMOSA pitches in Chicago on Aug. 6 and 7, the presentation will be watched by representatives from major healthcare providers, insurers and technology companies.

Last month’s capital raise, the amount of which was not disclosed, included funding from Kindling Venture Partners, another California company, Vancouver’s Spring Impact Capital, Toronto-based Raspberry Investment Corporation and returning investors.

Ocean Startup Project Names 25 Idea Challenge Companies

The Ocean Startup Project, a national industry group, has announced the 25 very early-stage companies chosen to participate in its Ocean Idea Challenge, which offers up to $7,000 of funding, as well as training and support services.

The Idea Challenge is a milestone-based accelerator program for entrepreneurs working on customer discovery and product-market fit, and for top-performing companies. It feeds into the more advanced Ocean Startup Challenge, which offers $25,000. This year’s companies were chosen out of a field of 56.

“The Ocean Idea Challenge is a testament to the incredible talent, innovative spirit and excitement within the ocean startup community,” said Paula Mendonça, the group’s executive director. “This program is nurturing the next wave of ocean startups, and the inspiring ideas we’ve seen speak volumes about the success of our continuum.

“As the ecosystem becomes increasingly self-sustaining, it’s clear that the future of ocean innovation is bright. We’re excited to support these startups and their contributions to the global Blue Economy.”

Companies based outside of Atlantic Canada had a stronger showing this year, according to the Ocean Startup Project. Twenty of the competitors are from outside the Atlantic provinces, four are from Newfoundland and Labrador and one is from New Brunswick.

Here’s a look at the young businesses:

Aeronovous

Newfoundland and Labrador

Aeronovous is creating an iceberg detection system that will use drones to enhance maritime safety and environmental monitoring. 

Aethercom

Quebec

Aethercom hopes to solve the problem of unreliable and expensive maritime communication in remote ocean areas with the help of next-gen antennas.

Alberni Yachts

British Columbia

Alberni Yachts is building a zero-emissions vessel for the adventure sailing market.

Altair Robotics Solutions

Quebec

Altair is developing technology to detect and recover ghost fishing gear — equipment that has been lost by fishers.

Atlantic BioCorp

Newfoundland and Labrador

Atlantic BioCorp is turning fishery waste, such as crab shells, into raw materials.

Bio-Stat-Green Consulting

Ontario

Bio-Stat-Green is air purification technology that uses micro-algae.

Deepwater Robotics

Ontario

Deepwater is building a low-cost autonomous underwater vehicle for large-scale ocean exploration and monitoring.

Experimental Fluid Mechanics Platform (EFM)

Ontario

EFM is developing software to increase the efficiency of experiments in fluid mechanics research.

Fibr.Bio

British Columbia

Fibr.Bio is developing technology to convert organic bio-waste into a high-performance spandex alternative via bacterial fermentation.

FIMM

British Columbia

FIMM is developing specialized marine coatings formulated for better durability and antifouling protection.

FlowMotion

Ontario

FlowMotion is developing a turbine system for harvesting electricity from tides and river currents.

FrequenSea

Quebec

FrequenSea is developing technology to integrate near-real-time environmental data into navigation route optimization tools.

GPFED

Quebec

GPFED plans to use digital twin technologies based on artificial intelligence to enhance aquaculture production techniques, with the aim of lowering costs and producing higher-quality fish products.

GPROSYS Corp.

Ontario

GPROSYS is designing a resilient battery with smart control for use in extremely cold weather.

Miha Biotech

British Columbia

Miha is working on a new type of bandage that uses seaweed to smooth and treat burns.

Nabik Automations

Ontario

Nabik is developing underwater robotics technology for offshore marine vessel maintenance, with the goal of avoiding unnecessary time spent in dry dock.

OceanAM

New Brunswick

OceanAM is building a remotely operated vehicle for underwater maintenance work using metal additive manufacturing concepts.

Ocean Riot

Quebec

Ocean Riot sells automated technology for seafloor resource and biomass assessments using marine robotics and artificial intelligence.

OEEE – Oil Spill Detection Using Empowered Earth Eyes

Newfoundland and Labrador

OEEE is working on technology that uses satellite imagery and artificial intelligence to detect and observe oil spills.

Pinnacle Energy

Newfoundland and Labrador

Pinnacle hopes to address the energy constraint faced by remote and underserved communities via Triboelectric Nanogenerators, a process used to harvest ocean wave energy.

ReEng

Newfoundland and Labrador

ReEng is working on Hybrid Piezoelectric-Electromagnetic Vibration Energy Harvesters to harness vibrational energy from natural sources, such as ocean waves and wind flow.

Robonotic

Quebec

Robonotic is developing an artificial predator to detect and control aquatic invasive species.

Seacork Studio

British Columbia

Seacork makes biodegradable acoustic panels from local seaweed.

Technologies de pêche Aquarius

Quebec

Technologies de pêche Aquarius is developing a tool to hook on to fishing nets and lift them off the seabed, reducing environmental impacts and costs to fishers.

TRANQUILEAU

Quebec

TRANQUILEAU is developing a retractable cofferdam — a pump and dam combination used to keep areas dry below the waterline — to help protect coastal communities from climate change.

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